To create Utopia
by Bipedial
Summary: "What can change the nature of a man?" The gleaming ideal of Zootopia shatters under scrutiny, polish and shine hides corrosion and pain. To create is to suffer and to achieve perfection requires sacrificing everything. Because the only thing that can truly change a man is regret.
1. Prelude

*** Beep * Beep * Beep*** blares a bedside alarm with the numbers 5:30 piercing through the dark of the room with its green luminescence.

A lone figure shifts idly on top a bed, wrapped tightly in blankets as his head pushes deeper into the pillows. As if knowing the silent protest the alarm seemingly grew even louder, shrilling directly into the mans head.

An arm darts out of the covers and silences the alarm, the figure finally rising up to glare accusingly at the device that had ruined his slumber, the dial now reading 5:32.

Realizing that it would now be futile to try going back to sleep now, he elected to rub the sand out of his eyes and elect rather to begin his morning routine. Going through the standard morning of grooming, brushing and preparing a quick breakfast composing of a single cup of coffee that had been sitting in the carafe for an an unknown amount of time and a stale bagel.

Grimacing as he drank the putrid sludge, thick globs of coagulated coffee dripping their concentrated caffeine remains into his system and shoved the bagel into his mouth.

The clock now read 6:24, his shift began in 36 minutes but he lived a short walk away from the ZPD base so he still leisurely put on his uniform. Deciding to leave the top button on his lapel undone as a change of pace, he fastens the gear tightly to his body. Weapon holstered and collar lined with 4 stars that glinted in the dim light of the room as the rising sun shone in.

After some time he decided to leave his apartment and walked past a small mirror he had left in the living room. He wasn't sure why he still had this thing as he had removed all the other mirrors in the place – including tearing down the one in the bathroom which the landlord to this day harps on him about. Briefing a glance he saw the face that others saw and one that only he saw. To others he was a firm and stoic figure, with aging features developing such as the rings under his eyes indicating his late hours and difficulty sleeping.

But he could see the things no one else could, the way that the skin around his lips curved down from the years of scowling. The way the stars on his collar held worn edges from the fanatical polishing and re-polishing. The yellowing teeth from the endless gallons of coffee he had imbibed over his years and the hard glint his eyes held. Revealing so much of his personality and yet not revealing anything of his inner thoughts – his emotions having been hardened years ago.

Moving his gaze from the mirror he went left the run down hovel of his apartment and trekked the few blocks to the department. The few animals that were in his way either avoided him or stated warm greetings as he returned brief courtesies.

Reaching the department an hour before everyone else, as usual, he went over to his office to gather materials for the daily assignments and to begin the necessary paperwork for the cases he was about to hand out and before he knew it he could hear the tell-tale shuffling of animals into the building. The light shaking of the building as the larger mammals stepped to the daily meeting room. Finalizing what he had to do he went to the room as well.

As his figure entered the room the wild antics and chatter suddenly died down, the combination of his imposing figure and the crews admiration and respect for the chief quieted them down to listen.

When he jumped up to the adjusted podium, Chief Wilde began to delegate everyone's duties.

_

Just a quick little introduction into the story. Story is loosely based on Mead's comic series of the Judy is Dead series. Some things will be changed of course for creative purposes but I did like the idea of Chief Wilde and will explore that in this story. Let me know what you think as this is the first work I've done.

In terms of chapter lengths I'll most likely experiment. This was ~600 works but I'm not against a few thousand per chapter. Depends on what the overall perception is. I might just have a few chapters have varying lengths that way everyone can tell me what they think about their favorite chapter length.


	2. Introductions P1

"Caterby, Stellano and Lyandro – Savanna Central" stated Wilde as a feline, Timber Wolf and Lion stood up from their seats to retrieve the case file from their chief.

"Huffer and Nangi will be investigating a recent robbery in Sahara Square" which had a Boar and Elephant team step up.

"There is currently nothing for Tundra Town but I have received intelligence about mafia activity in the Rain forest district so I want everyone else to figure out what they're up to undercover." Upon mentioning the infamous Simian mafia – a group of chimpanzees and monkeys that have been extorting the local population and led to mysterious disappearances the remaining officers collectively nodded in understanding and stood up to continue the ongoing investigation against their virulence.

As the smallest member of the ZPD stood up to leave she was interrupted by the rough voice of Wilde speaking out "Except Hopps who is on Parking Duty, dismissed".

Upon mention of her name the young bunny froze in her seat, ears up and eyes open. The suddenness of the statement and the Fox's swift movement, faster than someone of his age should have the right to move, she almost didn't respond. Right as he was about to leave the room her faculties came back to her as she blurted out "But Chief!" which had him stop in his movements, slowly turning around to fix her with a withering look.

Suddenly nervous she stuttered out "S-sir I'm not some token bu-bunny you know, I was top of my class and I think I should be on the case with everyone else." Her heart racing as the Chief was now staring straight at her, she knew he was only 4 feet tall and was even on the other side of the room and yet at this point he looked massive.

Hearing the stories of her heroic aunt and Uncle growing up made her aspire to be a ZPD officer just like them. When the horrible news of her death from a shootout had hit the Burrows it made her that much more determined to take the mantle and honor her death. She worked incredibly hard to be accepted into the academy and doubly so to hit valedictorian just as her aunt had done. All her work had landed her the position of officer and had come into that morning excited and ready to make a difference.

The Fox looking at her now was nothing like the uncle she remembered fondly as a young kit. She wasn't sure if he could remember her out of the thousands of siblings that had swarmed the couple but she fondly remembered how much fun he was and all the games they had played with him until he was too exhausted to do any more. His kind smile and loving attitude instantly won her and her siblings over then. It was only a year later when Judy had died and she hadn't seen Nick since then. Her parents told her how he made Detective then Sergeant and then Major, in absolutely record time since her aunts death and how proud of him they were.

Stories circulated about a fox who blew past all the suspicion and bigotry to become the first fox Chief in ZPD history and while in the academy heard stories about how much admiration and respect he managed to acquired from his people even as he was cast as a controversial individual by city council. She was warned by Casein, the nice water buffalo at the front desk, as she entered the building that morning.

"Oh well would you look at the cute bunny joining our forces today" she happily quipped while leaning over the counter to take a good look at her.

"Umm, sorry, you might not know this but it's fine if a bunny calls another bunny cute but when someone else does it..." she trailed off looking a little uncomfortable.

Bringing her hooves to her face she made to cover her mouth "Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't mean anything by it! I'm just glad to see a new face."

"It's ok" said July "You couldn't have known".

They talked for a bit, mainly July asked her questions about how the ZPD daily ministrations were done and other questions about the staff.

"So what do you think of the Chief?" July had asked Casein "I haven't seen Uncle Nick in forever!"

"Oh" Suddenly Casein looked kind of uncomfortable "He's great but you might not want to call him that when you see him."

"Why not?" questioned July, suddenly curious on the sudden change of tone of the lively Buffalo.

Waving her hoof in the air "Professionalism and all that. He's a great Chief but he can be a bit intense and you might not want to get off on the wrong foot on the first day."

July didn't really know how to interpret that as she thought about it. The Uncle Nick she knew and loved was incredibly fun and laid back, he didn't seem like he could even pretend to show interest in anything particularly let alone be intense as Casein had said. But she nodded anyway and stated her acceptance of the response.

When she arrived at the desk afterwards ready for the daily meeting she looked around and saw the variety of officers, greeting each one as they warmly greeted her. When the Chief arrived at first glance he was almost exactly the same Nick she remembered albeit a bit older.

Now, with the fox almost glaring at her he looked nothing like her memories.

The Nick in her memories had a smirk and half lidded eyes, the Nick in the room had a scowl and focused eyes. In her memories he slumped over or laid back into the most comfortable position he could get while this one was ramrod and un-moving. The one that held her was lean with a little pudge scattered around his body while this one had shifting muscles and an athletic build that indicated thousands of hours of dedicated training.

She didn't know who this Fox was, it was certainly not her Uncle. Her instincts screamed at her to scurry and run when facing him but she held her ground waiting for his response.

After what seemed like an eternity he opened his muzzle to calmly state "No you are on parking duty", and with that he left.

Letting out the breath she didn't realize she held she state there in stunned silence. Willing her racing heart to slow down. She was almost sweating and only said one thing to the guy for cripes sake! When she realized she was alone in the room and it was nearing 9 she darted out, not sure on what happened but she could focus on it later at lunch.


	3. Introductions P2

Her day started off as normal as it always did. Waking up to stretch, eat and squeeze into the ever tightening uniform she wore.

"Must be shrinking in the wash" Casein Bogo had deluded herself as becoming almost part of her daily ritual.

Showing up at around the same time she normally did she had taken up shop at the front desk to direct officers and civilians who entered the ZPD headquarters. When a bunny walked into the front doors she suddenly remembered the mentioning of a new graduate from the academy.

Looking across at her, her uniform was crisp and well-done. The rabbits body was toned and slim from the academy and her eyes were large with a look of wonder on her face taking in the entirety of the building in.

She already knew she liked this girl.

"Oh well would you look at the cute bunny joining our forces today" she had called out to the girl, whose nametag she read as Hopps.

"Umm, sorry you might not know this but it's fine if a bunny calls another bunny cute but when someone else does it..." the girl responded fidgeting around. Suddenly aware of the large Buffalo.

A feeling of horror passed through her and she almost cursed out loud at her bad manners "Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't mean anything by it! I'm just glad to see a new face" she rushed out.

"It's ok" said Hopps "You couldn't have known".

Moving past that momentary discomfort her face broke out in a large grin and she leaned over the counter to get a better look at the new recruit "So what can I do for you today?" Casein asked.

"Well this is my first day and I'm not really sure where anything is or how anything works" the rabbit replied with a bashful look.

So they get to talking and Casein learns a few things about this girl she didn't know, either because she didn't hear about it or didn't really care before. A bad habit she picked up from her father.

First was this was indeed the Niece of Judy Hopps whose death people speculated had turned their Chief into the mega hardass he was today.

Secondly she apparently met the Chief, her Uncle, when she was a young kit and he was the laid back and cool uncle. So she hadn't seen him for the last few years and Casein was suddenly worried about how she was going to act around him and almost wanted to tell her to not go to the meeting.

Thirdly she had terrible taste in music, I mean seriously Gazelle? That is just old mammal music.

Still she was right that she knew she'd like this girl right away. But she still had to warn her about acting professional to the chief. Hopps, her first name was July as the girl told her, nodded and responded in the affirmative but Casein still thought that it didn't really sink in.

Watching her leave for the meeting she kept herself busy by cleaning off her desk and finishing up paperwork left about recent damages done to the building when an inebriated suspect elephant sat on and then subsequently crushed some nearby masonry.

Before she knew it out walked past her was a dejected looking July, wearing the bright safety vest and cover befitting a meter maid. She expected as much, the meter maid position was typically a rite of passage for new recruits and the tradition was set up by Chief Wilde when he assumed office. It didn't matter if you were a star athlete or a super genius, you always spent your first few months as a meter maid.

It's boring but it's not horrible but the bunny moping out looked so much more upset than what she should have been. Either she really hates the idea of being a meter maid or…

"Uh oh, I had a feeling this would happen" she quietly whispered to herself.

Calling out to the girl, July turned around in surprise to the water Buffalo. Suddenly being brought into reality and realizing where she was.

"Oh...Hey Casein" the girl despondently responded as she trudged up to her desk.

"What's got you in that funk girl? It can't be that bad being a car cop." she responded with a smirk growing on her face "I had to do a stint of it as well, are you saying you're better than me?" she joked.

Looking apalled the bunny was quick to respond "N-no! It's not that it's just..." she trailed off looking to the side.

"Chief Wilde isn't what you expected?" She questioned with a knowing look. Her response was a vigorous head nodding.

"You haven't seen him in years so I understand why you're not quite used to it and I haven't really seen the entire story myself but after our shifts today we can meet up for some drinks or something and we can talk about it" Casein said.

July didn't see anything wrong with the idea, she already liked the Casein – was new to the city so she didn't really know anybody and maybe she can explain why Uncle Nick was such a jackass.

"Sure" she responded as she pulled out her phone to take down Caseins information and figure out where they would go tonight.

The day actually didn't take too long to finish due to an incredible amount of cars having to be ticketed and fined for parking infractions. She was so busy that the roll out time crept up on her and before she knew it her watch read 1700 and the day was over.

Putting away her gear, showering and putting on civilian attire she went to their agreed Rendezvous point. A small hole in the wall diner in Savannah Square named Lucky 13. Going in she was amazed to realize that all the workers, both the cooks and the servers, were sloths. But according to Casein the food was "Just so good it's worth the wait."

Entering the establishment she was hit with the quaint charm. Worn down counter tops with large cushioned seats of a fraying plastic material. Paintings of times long past adorning the walls and the sloths slowly shuffling around the building. The smell of food hit her and her stomach rumbled so she figured it was a good choice to meet up here.

Seeing the broad shouldered and bulky body of her new friend in one of the booths she went up and jumped onto the large booth.

Noticing her small friend appearing Casein greeted her and pushed a plate of what looked to be a fruit salad towards the bunny.

"Sorry I was just so hungry I had to get something" she mentioned apologetically "But try this, I don't know what they put in it but it's amazing!"

Looking down at the plate just made it look like a normal dish of fruits and nothing really spectacular. But decided to pull a slice of apple and nibbled it. The taste hit her, the blend of sweet and sour along with what seemed to have an acidic quality to it, vinegar?

"Wow it's good!" she exclaimed and quickly finished off the rest of the slice.

"Told you" the large girl responded with a knowing smirk on her face "I don't know what they do here but everyone is great, it's why I always come and it's also probably why I need to lose a few pounds" she bashfully replied.

Being upfront and honest was a trait she grew up with in the Burrows so she cut the side chatter and right away asked "So what happened to Unc- I mean Chief Wilde? Why is he so…. Mean?" July asked.

Suddenly looking a little uncomfortable with the direct questioning but she was the one that had set this up so not surprised at it. If she hadn't seen her father in years and suddenly went from the grouchy stern man she remembered to a carefree and joyful man she'd be a little skeptical and wanting answers to so she excused the bluntness of the bunny.

"Well like I said, I don't know the full story. I don't know if anyone really does except Chief himself. All I know is that apparently years ago he was just a big goofball and from people who worked with him back then before they retired said he was just a laid back guy and joked that his partner, Judy did all the work" Casein had started.

"Now apparently they were more than just partners and I remember how my father came home bitching about what a headache those too were always giving him. I mean don't get me wrong he loved them and the work they did and respected the hell out of them but he would almost always come home and have something Hopps this or Wilde That."

Pausing to take a sip of her drink she continued "Now technically partner relationships are a no-go, I mean it's not as serious as it would be in the military for an Officer/Enlisted deal but it was still dangerous but honestly was up to the discretion of the acting Chief. My father didn't like it but he figured that as long as they didn't let it impact their work he would tolerate it."

"Well that blew up, not in the way you think because they still worked miracles. I remember my father awarding medal after medal to the duo for the incredible undercover work they managed to do. I think it was Judy's tenaciousness and Nicks cleverness that managed to dig up leads that no one else thought to look for is why they did so well. No what had happened was their relationship got out and caused a political shitstorm."

Judy remembered that, it was a bit after letting the family know about their relationship where News reports came in talking about the first open interspecies relationship. They weren't the first but they were the jewel of the city of Zootopia and for your heroes to do this caused a lot of controversy. She couldn't really understand it at the time though, as a young kit she figured if you loved something you loved it. With the love she saw in her Uncles eyes whenever he saw Judy and how Judy couldn't stop talking about him made not loving eachother hopeless.

"Well obviously they didn't break up and obviously my father didn't do anything about it, really stuck his neck out for them from what he told me but he said it was time for the city to change and develop."

The server came by with their menus and asked if they knew what they wanted. Almost 5 minutes passed for her to do all this and leave and July seriously questioned if this place was seriously worth waiting for.

"Anyway you know what happens next, the two gets married and I even got to be their flower girl" she boasted proudly while July rolled her eyes.

Then the proud look gets replaced by a very somber one "After a few years, during that shoot out that occurred in the Rain forest district Judy was shot" she said as she took another drink "I don't know what the story of that was but apparently no one was around to help and she bled out before Wilde could find her and bring her to the hospital."

She didn't know that angle of the story, her parents had said that it was a freak of nature that killed her Aunt. To hear that she was shot at night and died slowly and alone made her almost start crying, she couldn't imagine that happening to her hero.

"After that…. Wilde changed. My father said that he went from a goofball to being absolutely no nonsense and threw himself at his work. He shot far ahead of everyone else in cases and administration work and received promotion after promotion. Before he knew it when my father retired he saw that Wilde was by far the best candidate and chose him to be the new Chief."

"It was controversial to name him Chief because he was a fox with a checkered past, but to my father and the rest of the troop it wasn't at all surprising and they expected it."

She paused, deep in thought for a moment.

"My father said that Judy's death catalyzed something inside him that caused his change. He took it so strongly and was so devastated that he was forced to give Wilde some time off to recover but was forced to bring him in a few days later when he continued working cases and looking up leads against his wishes. At the very least he could keep account of where he was and what kind of danger he was putting himself in."

"I don't know what happened to the Chief exactly, obviously he loved her but why his response was to be so hard working and make chief so quickly no one knows. He's never said anything about it and keeps his emotions close to his chest. Sometimes he comes out to get together's and social calls but no one really knows about him much."

"All I can say is that everyone respects the hell out of him, he takes good care of us and makes sure to be fair." said the buffalo.

The server came back which interrupted her, a salad for July and a veggie burger for Casein.

"That makes sense but I just don't get why he was so mean to me this morning" mumbled July between bites.

"I think Chief gave you the same treatment he did us but maybe you just interpreted it as him picking on you. Everyone has to do 2 months meter maid before they go on the beat. I did it, Huffer did it and even Caterby did it and that girl is a badass." she responded.

"Still..." she mumbled, looking down.

"Hey, don't sweat it. He may seem like a mean old fox but I promise Chief is great once he accepts you into the fold, you just gotta earn your chops and prove to that curmudgeonly bastard that you're a ZPD officer!" inspired the bovine.

Looking up with the fire back in her eyes July responded "You're right! If being a meter maid is what it takes then I'll be the best damn meter maid this force has seen!"

"That's the spirit girl, get those cars" joked Casein "But tomorrow though, I'm really hungry and want to finish this".


	4. Officer Hopps

Three thousand and forty five.

There are three thousand and forty five small holes lining her bright safety vest.

It was official, July was bored.

Wait, bored isn't the right word. If she was bored she could figure out something interesting to do to help relieve the boredom. No this period was so mind-numbing she thought that taking off her vest to count the holes would be productive.

It's been three weeks since beginning the exercise in frustration that was meter maid. Don't get her wrong though she was doing the best she could with the circumstances but being a meter maid was a job where the better you are at it the more people hate you for it.

"What a hero you are" sneered a shrew as he pulled a ticket from the windshield she had placed moments prior.

It's not her fault that the timer expired! They should have been more aware of how long they were gone for after all.

Still it was having an impact on her sanity and caused her brain to desperately seek some sort of stimulation and she began to find the most minute things fascinating. Things like how the engine of her little mobile would click prompted her to research the vehicles history after hours and found out about engine problems it's had in the past. Or how the city would use a special non-slip material for the roads which she unfortunately found out after slipping and scraping her side on a few days ago.

Casein and her became fast friends and it was typical for the pair to spend some time together out and about after work. She had nothing else better to do in the hovel she called an apartment at home while Casein typically spent the better part of her day watching reruns and writing in her journal. She found out that the she initially joined the ZPD force because she didn't know what else to do, her father was the previous chief and it seemed as though she had an aptitude to the work. The biggest limit to her was her overall complacency with how her life is which is why she was at the front desk rather than on the beat.

Not that there was anything wrong with that, thought July, but it was just not the life for her. Unsure it was the bunny nature in her or just something she had to do but she always wanted to improve where she was and that's why being a meter maid was hitting her so hard.

The other officers treated her generally nicely and there wasn't much to really report on in that regard, there was a bit of teasing from the others such as Nangi who had started to call her small fry but minor ribbing never hurt anyone.

The Chief was the biggest paradox to her though. Whenever he would start a meeting the room rapidly quieted down, which was a big feat to accomplish from some of the more boisterous individuals in the department. Anytime he'd talk everyone would listen intently and whenever they'd need to put in their input the Chief would do the same in kind and weigh it with his decisions.

He was always there too, that's something she began to notice. He would always be at the office before she was there and would be out of the office after her. She would question if he ever actually went home if his uniform wasn't always well pressed and his grooming wasn't impeccable.

In her limited exposures to him after their first meeting he seemed fine enough as he just gave her the facts and didn't seem to be overtly mean – just seemingly indifferent. Which was such a difference from their first meeting that she assumed he was just having a bad day or something.

There was something off about him though, she couldn't place what exactly it was but the way she would find him working on files only to quickly store them when he suspected he was being observed. Or how even on slow days he would always seem high strung as if he recently got out of a fight and was ready for another one. Or how whenever the mayors name was mentioned on the news he would stiffen and all his attention was focused on it.

Chalking it just up to quirks of being a chief as Casein had said that her father had similar quarks, except instead of files it was Gazelle.

"Annnnnnd that would be 100" she happily chirped out to no one as she placed the final ticket for the day. Clock striking 1700 she started to walk back to her little maid-mobile that Caterby called it before she was bowled over by a large timber wolf sprinting past.

Pushing herself up she was still dazed from the sudden impact as she watched the Wolf speed off and didn't know whether she should just ignore it or not.

Suddenly she found herself faced by a frantic looking porcupine who looked shaken "You're a cop right?" She asked.

Dumbly nodding in response the lady continued "He just stole my purse, aren't you going to do anything about it?"

Blinking once, twice then three times her faculties came back to her and a sudden wide toothed smile broke out on her face 'This is what I've been waiting my whole life to do!' she thought.

"Don't worry m'am, I'll get that crook and return your purse to you" she said before immediately sprinting in the direction of the suspect.

Although the wolf was obviously larger and had a significant head start the combination of her athleticism and the excitement rushing through her allowed her to very quickly close the ground and he was then in sight of her. Nearly forgetting about calling it in, she pulled out her radio in the midst of the chase to report in her actions.

"ZPD, this is Officer Hopps on ground pursuit in Savanna Central - I am currently chasing a large Timber Wolf with short white fur wearing a black checkered shirt. He stole a purse and requesting backup."

The radio soon crackled with acknowledgement and a response, she could barely make out the "Roger" and "Stop pursuit and wait for backup" from the radio. Rationally she should have stopped her chase then but she was so close to stopping the guy she didn't entertain the thought very long.

"Negative ZPD, I see the suspect and if I stop and wait he will be long gone." she replied before holstering her radio.

The wolf looked briefly over his shoulder at the sound of talking and pattering feet and saw a small rabbit chasing him, wearing a bright safety vest and a cap labeled ZPD on it. Cursing his luck and realizing he was exhausted from all the running he turned a corner into a nearby alleyway.

Chasing into the alleyway she almost couldn't stop in time to avoid smacking into a brick wall signaling the end of the alley.

Her ears flicked around as she no longer could see where the suspect was and thought she could hear where he may have escape to heard the clicking of clawed feet behind her.

"Looks like you got yourself trapped with the big bad wolf" growled the man "You should have just let me go but I don't have any other choice since you wouldn't let me go" as he advanced on her.

It was quite the site to see a rabbit a fraction of the height of the wolf suddenly jump high into the air and strike the wolf with a kick that soundly sent him on his ass before he could even realize what happened. She was no token bunny after all and was able to knock out mammals bigger than him.

Gripping the side of his face that was kicked hard he sat there shocked and was feeling for broken bones but didn't feel the telltale sign of it. Shaking himself out of his stupor he began to stand up, reaching into his pocket as he did so.

July's training kicked in and she realized she had to act fast if she wanted to keep him from doing whatever it was he was doing. Jumping into action she first slammed the canines side with an open paw smack which sent painful shocks through the wolf - pausing him. Jumping over his now crouching form she grabbed both arms at the crux of the armpit and with her downward momentum managed to fling him over her head, sprawling him on the ground. Pulling out a pair of handcuffs that every officer was mandated to carry she jumped on his back, removed his hand from his pocket which later revealed he was pulling out an illegal switchblade he had, and cuffed the man behind his back and then stood on top of him to make it difficult for him to stand back up.

July panted and waited a moment to let her rapidly fluttering heart settle before pulling out her radio and calling it in "This is Officer Hopps, I'm located on the corner of 5th and Louis in Savannah Central and have apprehended the suspect. Calling for pickup."

The radio buzzed a moment later "Roger, individuals on the way will come to pickup. ETA five minutes."

July's spirit was soaring, she was an actual cop! Not some stupid meter maid! She even managed to get the crook all by herself with no collateral damage or issues. Her mood was sky high and she contemplated on doing a little dance but refrained since she was still on the man's back before she heard the tell-tale crackling of the radio again.

What she heard next crushed her spirits faster than anything should have possibly had the right to do.

Through the static of the radio came the rough voice of Chief.

"Hopps, I want you in my office. Immediately."

Let me know what you think of the story thus far. Otherwise hope everyone's enjoying it.


	5. Joeffry the CatFox

Today seemed like a nice day, nothing to complain about. Him and Finn had just managed to snag themselves a jumbo pop from the local elephant creamery thanks to help from an unknowing and probably unwilling bunny car cop.

At that point it was just a matter of routine, melting then forming then selling every single piece. He considered himself a modern day native mustang, making sure to make use of every single piece of his available resource to maximize profits.

Then he always went on his customary swim, a mammal had to keep himself in shape after all and nothing better to beat the heat than with a nice dip. The day seemed like it was shaping up to be a pretty good one.

 **Clang**

Went the buoy as he accidentally swam headfirst into one.

"Oh cheese and crackers" he involuntary spat out as he stopped to rub his now sore head "When did they put this thing here?"

He didn't really think to question why a buoy was supposed to be in a pool at all, nor did he realize how dark the water was getting.

When Nick stopped rubbing his head and muzzle he looked up only to see the Buoy gone, vanished as if it were never there.

'Oh man I must be losing it, it's got to be all the leftover Chinese fermenting in his stomach getting to him' he thought as he kept swimming.

But he kept swimming, for a pretty long time and then he realized the pool actually wasn't that big so how can he be swimming in a straight line for such a long time. Stopping he looked ahead to see how much further he had to go and just saw water.

Shocked he looked around him and saw more water, endless miles of it surrounding him. Resisting the urge to shout expletives he wracked his brain to figure out how to get out of this situation. Reaching down he felt around in his pockets, didn't he change to his pocket less swim trunks? Regardless he felt his phone and pulled it out of his pocket.

Somehow it remained bone dry and flipping his old fashioned device open he heard someones voice coming from the phone but he didn't dial anything.

"Hey Nick" it was Finnicks rough voice "When are you going to wake up man?"

Flabbergasted Nick responds "Wake up? W-what are you talking about man?"

He woke up, sweaty and hot.

"Oh hey sweety" sang a sweet voice, tiredly looking to his left was Judy walking over with a glass of ice water "You fell asleep during the movie and I wanted to wake you but you just looked so cute I couldn't bring myself to it."

Rolling his eyes at being called cute he looked at his surroundings and remembered that it was movie night for the two of them. He was covered in blankets which explains why he's so hot and the TV was turned off.

Pulling the blankets off he felt the comfortable weight of his mate moving to his side, sneaking herself underneath his arm to snuggle.

Idly petting her he thought about the weird dream he just had. First he was at his old conmammal occupation and then suddenly he was in the middle of the ocean?

He was pulled from his idle musings when he felt her fur moving, looking down at his paw he expected Judy to have shifted but instead saw a scattering of loose fur.

"Hey Carrots, you know it's not that great an idea to start shedding in the dead of winter right?" he joked. But received no response from the prone rabbit. Instead the fur started coming off in chunks from her body.

His heart started beating a little faster as a feeling of dread overtook him "J-judy? What's going on?"

He thought that she was moving but instead her skin was the only thing moving. Shifting and rolling on her frame as if it was a living organism that was trying to escape. He tried to move away from her but her grip was so much stronger than someone her size deserved to have.

When the smell of rot and the sight of splitting skin hit him was when he drew out his claws and used them to disable her forearm muscles causing her to involuntarily release him, a neat trick he learned as a tactic of underhanded fighting in his younger years.

"Niiiick" toned out Ju- No whatever in the world was in her skin. Against his better judgement he stopped his running out of the room to look back at it. Expecting the worst what instead he saw was an individual he didn't recognize. As if the Judy skin was molted off and left behind a mammal wearing an expensive suit, strangely he couldn't make out any other features of this mammal. Not the face, nor the skin and he couldn't even tell what kind of animal it even was.

"What do you want with me?! What did you do to Judy?" he growled out, senses on high alert in case things were coming to blows.

"You know who I am" said the creature "And you know what happened to Judy" it stated neutrally.

He hit his breaking point and snapped "You know I'm getting really sick of dealing with stupid bullshit everyday, tell me what you did" he snarled as his rage overtook him and his claws extended and sharp teeth was exposed.

The spirit chuckled briefly and whispered a statement that even his sensitive ears could pick up, pausing a moment in his righteous anger he questioned "What was that?"

"You need to wake up."

Stunned he "Wake up? I'm already awake what are you talking about and why aren't you answering my question?"

Suddenly the room vanished from him and he was in a dark room he didn't recognize. He let his eyes adjust to the new location and froze from realization.

He remembered this place, this horrible place that changed everything. He felt the familiar sensation of blood on his paws, the sticky slick substance matting down the fur around his muzzle. The amount of adrenaline and anger, familiar from that night, filling everything in his body. Every sensory organ was on high alert and even though he knew he was exhausted and was shaking while just standing there he couldn't stop from looking around him.

Seeing the familiar scene of torn metal and dead mammals around him, some looking gruesomly maimed or torn apart from what could have only been a wood chipper. Dull and uncaring for them he saw his mate, his love and the rope that pulled him out of his hole laying on the ground a distance away from him.

Every step towards her seemed impossible and every step after was more difficult than the last. The weight on his muscles and bones becoming more apparent as the stillness in her body was more obvious and the pool of blood around her more real. Reaching her he collapsed onto his knees, tears involuntarily dripping down from his face as he looked at her.

"..." he swore he saw Judys mouth move.

With baited breath and hitched breath he leaned down closer to her "Judy?" he hopefully asked.

"Nick" he could barely make out but the movement of her lips was unmistakable.

"How are you still alive? Oh - oh my god Judy I need to call the vet just hang in there!" he rushed out to her as he reached into his pocket.

Opening her eyes a slit she reached up to his collar using all her strength to do so. His attention snapped to her as she quietly said "Nick, I need you to do me a favor."

Nodding vigorously he assented "Anything Carrots, what do you need me to do?"

A lone tear fell down her face as she suddenly hiccuped, blood specks coming out of her mouth "I need you to wake up Nick."

No...It couldn't be. It was too real, he could feel everything. He could smell everything. There was just no way "Judy stop messing with me, I'm going to call the Vet and everything will be fine."

She slowly moved her head side to side "Dumb fox, always so hardheaded. Wake up."

 **BEEP BEEP BEEP**

He shot up in bed, sweating and pulse racing as the chirping of his familiar alarm reached his ears. Looking to the side he saw that the alarm read 5:32 as he moved to stop it.

He shifted his form off the bed and moved over to his bathroom to pull out a small vial. It's getting harder every single day to figure out what's real and what's in his dreams now, that last one was so real he could absolutely swear that he was living in it.

At the tip of Nangi he kept a dream journal, apparently elephants memory didn't extend to their dreams so they would keep one for accountability. Initially it only brought pain having to write down all the horrible sights and things he'd see but eventually he realized how much information he was able to get from his dreams that he must have missed through the day but his subconscious took and cataloged only to serve it again to him in his oblivion.

He pulled the plastic top of the vial off to reveal an oily substance as he took a deep whiff. Wincing at the potent smell of peppermint he realized he was back in reality. One thing Nick realized is that in his dreams, although he could smell things vividly the smell of peppermint was always absent in them. Even in one of the dreams where he was literally snacking on hard peppermint candies they instead had the odor of strong oranges rather than distinctive peppermint.

He chalked this up to the fact that Judy HATED the smell, no particular reason she just absolutely hated it and as a result it was never in the house while they were together. So his mind must have used the scent as an anchor, allowing him to use this as a way to baseline his mind.

Covering the vial and placing it back in it's place he stopped to write down what had happened this time in his dream. The water was nothing new, lots of past dreams had him in some large body of water and at least he wasn't drowning this time. The dark figure was new though, not sure what that sort of metamorphosis represented.

Then that scene at the end, it's happened before. He relives it almost every single time since that day but it was just SO vivid. It honestly felt like it had just happened moments ago and he was waking up in that hospital bed again, pulling all the monitors and wires from his body.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts he remembers he remembers that it was Saturday and that he had set the day off for himself, well if he was being honest he was basically forced to take the day off from his annoying but well-meaning crew, some garbage about him resting and not destroying his body at work all day.

'Bah' he thought 'they just want to slack off and not have me there to catch them'.

Realizing that he was thinking like a crotchety old man he chuckled to himself, oh man if Judy was here she'd dig into him for that remark.

"Well!" he yelled out to no one in particular "I guess if I'm awake anyway might as well get some work done!"

He started his normal daily routine sans putting on the uniform, instead he decided to pull out a disguise he had 'found' in an old warehouse ran by Mr. Big. I'm sure he wouldn't mind one single missing Cat costume, especially since he was his daughters godfather. Concealing the disguise in a basic shopping bag he had littering his apartment he left after eating some breakfast and of course drinking his black lifewater.

Right as he was about to leave the room he realized that he forgot to mask his scent and cover himself with the relevant feline pheromones. Although the use of nose work was lost in this modern era, there was no point in taking stupid risks.

After covering his scent up he peeled out of his apartment with shopping bag in hand, kindly greeting his neighbors on the way out.

Zigging and Zagging through the streets and roads was second nature to him, he had no idea if it were necessary but with the nature of the work he was about to do and the fact that he was already a very well known individual among the populace he didn't want to give any potential pursuers an easy time trying to decipher what his target was.

I mean it's great on one hand to be so well known for something other than just being 'just another thieving fox' and it's been awesome to watch as public perception on foxes change once he's made chief. Booking less foxes over time as they were more inspired by his example to achieve their dreams rather than be stuck in what society tried to place him as helped thaw a little of his cold heart.

But that just made what he was about to do even more difficult.

Reaching an deserted intersection of Rainforest and Tundra town he donned the cat disguise and disposed of the bag. Realizing with some good humor that it was good he was so thrifty and usually bought stuff from the lower end stores in town, it would do nothing but draw suspicion to see a bag of an expensive retail chain in a random trash can in the ghetto part of town.

After a bit more walking he stumbled upon a door attached to a building that's had better days. The thick smell of rot permeated the air as pieces of wood precariously hung onto the walls of the building. The door shook with the small taps he gave to it to signal his presence as he waited there with a practiced ease although he was resisting the urge to scratch at the mask, the formed rubber and synthetic fur always pulled on his actual fur.

A small delay later he could hear the pitter patter of tiny feet scurry to the door and it was questionable if any normal mammal could hear something so quiet but Nick hadn't been a normal mammal for quite some time now.

The smaller sub-door opened, revealing a mouse with stubble and a loose fitting shirt who he recognized as Dante.

The mouse squeaked up at him "What use of a flower with no nectar?"

Smoothly and without pause Nick responds "Because a single bloom can change the world".

Immediately the mouses expression brightens up at him "Joeffry it's been way too long, you have a new missus or something keeping 'ya?"

Predator and Prey relationships used to be taboo and rare, especially among natural enemies such as cats and mice, but ever since Judy and Nick were such a well published event it had opened up a lot of new relationships and friendships that would have been too dangerous to have done before.

Nick or should he say Joeffry the black and white Tabby responded in his practiced accent holding just a speck of aristocratic flair "Nah, it's just been really busy. You know how it is, can't always be dealing or working and have to lay low sometimes."

Nodding in understanding the mice goes back inside the door to press a mechanism that opens the rest of the door up so that Joeffry can enter. "Well come on in then mate, we can catch up or whatever. Boss has some jobs you can do if you were just here professional like and couldn't spare a poor rodent a few minutes."

Rolling his eyes at the mouse, Nick liked the mouse honestly. He was a good man with a shitty history and even worse friendships and just got himself into a bad place at a bad time. He was so much like himself it was scary except that he was pulled out by Judy. They had first met years ago when Nick started being sneaky and he had to gain his trust so that he could maintain his connections in the way he wanted to. But he didn't have to gain his friendship but did regardless.

"Always so melodramatic Dante, you act like I have some other life I can run to." Sometimes lies hold truth to them.

"Yeah yeah whatever mate" the mouse said chuckling leading them both deeper into the house which was significantly larger than the outside would show as it held levels that went deeper into the ground not to mention the facade of the building was just that - a facade. The inside was actually nice and reasonably furnished. But just like the plastic bag and his disguise the most dangerous dealings are always done in plain sight.

Eventually reaching a large room filled with a round oak table, a few chairs, a TV and a two fridges they stopped. "Hey I'm thirsty, want anything?" asked Dante as he went to over to the smaller fridge made for mammals such as him. Waving a paw in the air Joeffry responds "No thanks, as much as I want to catch up I'm mostly here for business".

"I expected as much I thought all damn cats lazed around all day until I got stuck with you" said Dante as he pulled a bottled water for himself. "But yeah boss has something for you" as he went over to the desk and jumped up to it. Walking on the thing until he reached a lone folder sitting on it face down.

"It's been sitting here for a while since no one else wanted to do it but since you're one of the more ... experienced and discrete people in the crew you might be able to crack this one" conspired Dante.

Ears perking, the Simian crew would frequently delegate certain work to other mammals for their expertise and natural talents which is most likely both why Dante had this file and also why no one else wanted to do it. Usually this kind of work ended up much more bloody than what the kids were used to or comfortable with.

"It's actually not that bad honestly" mused Dante "The basic gist is that we have a lamb that's been rumored to hide out in Tundra Town and she knows too much about whatever operation Boss has been up to and wants her handled before she decides to report or whatever."

That actually really got Nic-Joeffrys attention, the boss wanted a lamb silenced? It wasn't unusual to have mammals disappear or be told to get lost but that was typically for financial or territorial reasons. Grabbing the file out off the table he began to read and quickly realized that what the mouse had said was all that was said about the reason, it was vague about what exactly this was for.

'Ok let's think about this, we have a potentially dangerous mission to eliminate a lamb that is trying her best to stay out of the limelight. There doesn't seem to be anything normal on the line on this one but rather information and to have other mammals deal with it means two things: One, this mammal is important and also a huge target, but why? And Two, they obviously don't want the ZPD to realize they had their Simian thumbs all in this so that leads me to think that there is something I don't know going on and it's big.' thought Nick with his past detective work.

The mouse kept rambling but he could barely hear as he kept reading the file "So who is the mark anyway, what's her name?" the Cat said as he kept flipping through the file.

Stopping on the last page he read the name and everything froze. Memories involuntarily shot into him as the sudden urge to vomit nearly overcame him. Because on the last page in small grainy black and white photo of an lamb wearing a plaid sweater taken decades ago as he was the one that took the picture and the name.

Bellweather.

* * *

 ** _Going to take a detour from your regularly scheduled program for some fresh drama. Also reuploaded since it was missing some words for whatever reason._**


	6. Chief Wilde

"What did I end up getting myself into" muttered Nick darkly as he left the building and giving his goodbyes to the mouse.

Honestly he shouldn't be very surprised it was Bellweather. After a few years of confinement she managed to sneak out of the prison which Judy and he had suspected she was smuggled out by guards, whether they were placed or paid off he could never really prove. When nothing came out of the investigation on her whereabouts it was expected either she was gone or dead and Bogo had said it wouldn't be worth the resources to continue looking for her so it was dropped.

It was exactly one month later that the day happened and he was without a partner.

'Guess she didn't die' he thought but it just left the questions of how no one realized she was sitting in Tundra Town and why hadn't she just left Zootopia entirely?

The reports listed that she was near the Polar bear district but his issue was that the house the report said she was staying at was the location of an old hideout Mr. Bigs had - so either he knew about this and he's going to have to figure out his involvement or someone was working underneath him without him knowing.

It was mid-day and knowing from experience at working Tundra Town it would be best to wait until the dead of night to investigate this interesting case.

Honestly it was quaint, Tundra Town had the most tourists and the most family oriented events. Combine mammals and snow and people just break out into giggles and ice cream. You'd also wouldn't think that people would be willing to do anything nefarious there, it's just too cold.

But he knew, KNEW, that that section of town was the most vile at night. It was with good reason that crooks hid out there and some of the most dangerous mob bosses post their operations in Tundra Town. The combination of heavy snow silencing movement, how incredibly dark it would get at night and the very convenient natural freezer available to dump bodies anywhere and not have it be uncovered until it's basically stumbled over made it particularly ideal for criminal activity.

Maybe it was that or maybe he just didn't like the cold but he'd always get on edge whenever visiting that place. Usually he would send some of the mammals better adapted to climate to Tundra Town from his Officer Roster but he couldn't exactly do it now.

"Hey guys, remember Bellweather? Turns out she wasn't dead but she's hiding out in Tundra Town! How did I find out? Oh well I've been working as a criminal for a few years, you know trying to get new information and establish myself in the underworld sort of thing! That's normal for police officers to do right?" he quietly joked to himself. "Oh man I'm talking to myself now, Judy would call me crazy if she saw me" and the thought of her sobered him up.

Well if I can't do anything until later guess I might as well try to enjoy the rest of the day. Stick my head into the ZPD, not to do any work of course otherwise they'd yell at me but just to say hi. Then later tonight I can see if I can find her and figure out what is going on here.

Tracing his steps back but mixing it up with additional steps and removing his disguise in a new location he arrived back at his apartment. Carefully looking around he didn't see anything shifted or out of place indicating that no one had entered after he had left.

'Still looks like a piece of shit though, really need to clean up one of these days' he thought as he hid his disguise again and went to change into some casual clothing. A pair of slacks with his favorite green shirt.

It honestly felt good to be back in his old gear, he almost forgot how the soft material felt across his bare fur or how he wasn't Chief Wilde when he wore this but rather Nick Wilde.

Feeling strangely uplifted by the thought he proceeded out of his apartment but was interrupted by his stomach growling.

'Food' he thought, realizing he hadn't eaten anything since that morning and decided to swing by a local burger joint which he used to come by all the time but decided to cut down on his calorie intake as he felt he was starting to pudge up.

'Whatever, I think I've earned this one' and then proceeded to order his old favorite of a triple decker bug burger filled with extra cheese and secret sauce - with a large drink of course.

He chose to sit outside and look around while he ate. The city itself seemed to be the same but the population had changed since he had started. People of different species were more freely talking to and conversing with each other rather than keeping to their own kind. He even saw some displays of affection among the crowds. As much as this life stressed him out and how much he has left to go this makes it worthwhile, that although the world was the same it was indeed ready to change.

Finishing his meal he trashed the paper wrapping and cardboard cup and started the short walk to the ZPD, he tried to slink in through the front door but he was almost immediately accosted by a large Boar.

"Sir" stated the man he knew as Huffer "I thought you said you were going to take the day off today". He knew he meant well but he wasn't a kid and could make his own decisions for gods sake!

"I'm not working I promise, just strolling in to see how everyone is doing" he stated while holding his paws up in placating fashion. Receiving a noncommittal grunt the boar paid his respects and left the fox to return to his scheduled lunch period.

Huffer was a good cop and came to the ZPD primarily as a way to develop his own sense of self and professionalism. When he first came to the precinct he was cocky and thought he was invincible, thought that he was too good for a place like this which was dangerous thinking in their profession. He was really getting on everyones nerves and Bogo threatened to kick him out. But Nick saw how his rough edge was only a facade, he never had a strong role model growing up and so he was acting out and expected the ZPD to serve that role that he lacked.

So with that he had a heated discussion with the boar after hours and after one or two misplaced comments about dead bunnies and failures the Boar was lucky to be alive and instead had a blackened eye and split lip courtesy of thousands of hours of practiced brawling with a hyperactive rabbit.

After that though Huffer had opened up to Nick slowly but surely. He still held up his facade with the rest of the officers but to him he talked about his past and how his family had a history of criminal activity but his mother did her best to instill her son with a sense of personal pride and satisfaction from doing the right thing. How his brothers had either gotten killed or sent to jail and how he had never met his father. He joined because he wanted to do something better and to prove that he could be more than a thug.

Nick opened up too to the boy although he still left out details and through their conversation Huffer gained a deep appreciation and admiration of Nicks hardships and apologized profusely when he realized how horrible the things he said about Judy would be to someone like Nick.

Huffer started opening up to the rest of the precinct and eventually was accepted into the fold and now he was one of his best officers. Working hard and being someone he could trust with most things. But unfortunately the war he was trying to fight was accomplished with less rather than more.

He remembered reading something about how the NAVY SEALs would operate best in small groups, how the aquatic mammals would operate best in groups designed to increase trust and make each member value the survival of the group above their own. So does that mean working in a group of 1 was the best choice? Maybe he could talk to Finnick about this one next time he saw the fox.

Reaching his office he opened the door to see the same office he's grown familiar with. Unlike his messy apartment the office was well kept and organized, both to appear as professional to the rest of the staff and also because he got his ass ridden one too many times in the past for having a messy desk, damn it he had a system!

Taking a seat at his desk he went ahead and pulled the provided ZPD laptop closer to him and logged in. As Chief he had access to the criminal database and as incredibly tempting it was to go ahead and re-read the file they had on Bellweather and her past crimes he knew that he was being carefully watched and his every search was logged. Plus at this point he had memorized the page anyway.

Instead he decided to look into some of the big shots of the Simian gang which wouldn't seem too suspicious as the ZPD had been chasing them for the last couple months and he had written up some of the files himself. He wasn't sure exactly what he was hoping to find, maybe some sort of connection they had to Bellweather or some reason to why they have a sudden interest in his past rival.

'Georgio, Julius and Caesar' he thought as he looked over the file listing the known tri-bosses, known as the Great Apes, of the gang. Georgio and Julius were gorillas while Caesar was a chimpanzee, not much were really known about the trio other than the fact they've given him headaches.

Deciding to finish up since he didn't seem to find anything that he didn't already know he stumbled upon a page in the electronic file. It had to do with the finding of a new batch of nighthowler serum found in the labs of one of the great apes. The ZPD wasn't able to figure out what was in the stuff and why the chemical composition was different at all from the original serum, however.

'Maybe Bellweather knew about this and they wanted her gone to stop knowledge of it spreading?' he mused idly. But was pulled from his thoughts by the radio crackling to life. As Chief he had his radio to accept all transmissions just to keep an ear out for what his agents were doing, sometimes it could be a bit overwhelming but he's been able to filter and process out multiple speakers without much issue.

"ZPD, this is Officer Hopps on ground pursuit in Savanna Central - I am currently chasing a large Timber Wolf with short white fur wearing a black checkered shirt. He stole a purse and requesting backup."

Attention sharply focused on the radio he closed the laptop and turned towards it.

A few exchanges between the dispatcher and July caused his heart to sink as he realized she was pursuing this person on her own. When she stopped responding, even when he sent her a transmission himself, he feared the worst.

It felt like an eternity to him, this shit couldn't be happening to him again - he did his best to make sure it would never happen and here it was unfolding right before him. He was about to sprint out of the room to go hunt her down himself before he heard her voice come through the radio "This is Officer Hopps, I'm located on the corner of 5th and Louis in Savannah Central and have apprehended the suspect. Calling for pickup."

He should have been relieved, glad almost from hearing that she was safe and the suspect was apprehended. Instead he could feel his pulse pounding even harder, the blood surging through his veins. His fur stuck out as he felt prickling on his skin, involuntary growls slipped from his muzzle as he swore he could feel his canines and claws extending. He knew what this feeling was and with all his willpower rooted through his desk for a orange sized steel block he used as a paperweight and squeezed it with all his strength. Pouring everything he had, focusing every iota of strength he had into the steel caused his rage to slowly slip away.

When his fur had settled and he didn't feel like he was about to slaughter the entire building he transmitted a simple message over to his newest officer.

"Hopps, I want you in my office. Immediately."

He then remembered the steel block and looked down to see the steel warped and squashed clearly showing that some paw had done so.

'Well I guess I could say it's modern art' he joked.


	7. Broken dreams reforged

July didn't know what to really expect going into Chiefs office but she definitely didn't expect to see the Chief sitting in his chair sitting upright with his eyes closed taking slow breaths. When the door clicked closed his eyes shot open to look the interruption.

"Sit" said Nick as he pointed at the open seats in front of his desk.

Watching his cautiously walk to the invitation she couldn't refuse he took in her appearance. Even though she was Hopps kin he couldn't really see that much of a physical similarity between the two outside of the fact they were both rabbits. July stood a head taller than Judy, the top of her head reaching to right below his chin. Her fur was a pure white in comparison to the gray that she proudly wore and her eyes were a dark brown rather than the rich violet.

Personality wise they were identical. The pair clearly were overly optimistic at the world and hoping to make a change. However just like Judy she had a huge chip on her shoulder and felt she had to prove herself just like Judy had.

In short she had the same fucking death wish that Judy had.

"So..." he started calmly belaying the anger that bubbled underneath the surface, although with the flinch from the rabbit it was clear she could plainly see.

"So.." July responded carefully.

"How long have you wanted to be a cop, Ms. Hopps?" asked Nick. The conversation taking a personal route that she didn't expect had her sitting there frozen.

Taking it as his queue to keep going Nick decided to continue with his train of thought "Let me take a shot at the dark with this one, you let me know if I'm right or not here." he stated leaving no room for her to say no, instead she was curious on where he was going with this.

Getting up from his chair he paces around the room, circling around her and continuing around.

"You grew up in a large farm with thousands of siblings and you grew up thinking that you weren't really accomplishing the things you wanted to do and to be one in a sea of faces must have meant your family didn't give you the affection you wanted."

Her shifting in the chair would be imperceptible to most but not to our former conman who could read body language like a book.

"So you came to the big city to hope to change that!" he pumped his paw in front of him for dramatic effect "Now not only would you be the badass you wanted to be but you were hoping to be THE Hopps mammals would remember, am I right so far?"

She nodded dumbly, starting to feel trapped as his circling started getting closer to her.

"But Whoopsie!" He suddenly paused to her side and ticked off a digit on his paw "Here this bunny comes to the big city with big dreams and aspirations and she doesn't end up as a hot shot officer but a meter maid!"

Pulling down the next digit he continued his walk around her to his desk "Whoopsie number two, everyone in this city isn't all snuggly wuggly rabbits who just want to get along and this is the first time our hot shot rabbit cop was really exposed to differing views that extend past hill billy carrot farmers."

That was insulting to July, her family wasn't just a bunch of bunny inbreds that just farmed carrots all day "But Si-" she started before being cut off by the increasingly loud Chief.

"Whoopsie number threesie" he said while ticking off the third digit "Looks like the ZPD's second rabbit cop, in a display of sincere bravado and stupidity" at this Nick stopped his movements in front of his desk to sneer at her "Neglected her duty and chased an armed and dangerous suspect alone and without backup!" She jumped in her chair when he slammed his paws onto his desk. The hidden strength in his slim limbs causing the heavy oak table to shake violently before settling.

Even though she was intimidated she had dealt with bigger and worse predators in her youth so she responded to the accusations "S-sir I know what I did isn't standard ZPD protocol but if I had waited the-" before she was cut off by the Chief swiping his paw through the air.

"THEN LET THEM GET AWAY!" he snarled out, quickly fishing into his pockets to pull out his wallet and started throwing various pictures of Officers she didn't recognize.

"Look at all these mammals, all fine cops, all cops better than you and all cops that are now dead because they had to be fucking heroes and go in without backup!" He was now leaning into the table, his muzzle getting uncomfortably close to her.

Picking up a collection of photos he shifts through them "Higgins" he throws one photo on the table "Delgato" throwing another "Fangmyre and the rest" he says throwing the remainder onto the table.

The tirade taking it out of him causes him to slope back into his chair and for a moment July sees not the distinguised Chief of Police but an old fox full of sorrow and regret.

"201 tickets" he mutters.

Not sure what he had meant asked to clarify "202 tickets sir?"

"I want 201 tickets every single day from you before noon if you think you're just so much better than a meter maid this should be no problem for you." and then he sat up in his chair face hardened "and if this happens again I will get you removed from the ZPD and do everything I can to make sure you can never apply again."

Once again his muzzle was inches from her and the look of deadly calm both unnerved and frightened her, the intense gaze melting coherent thoughts and the only thing she could think of was to get out of there.

"Y-yes sir." she meekly responded.

With that he relaxed slightly but didn't lose his edge "Now get out" he said sternly before sitting back in his chair.

She couldn't escape the room fast enough, uttering a yes sir before scrambling out. Closing the door behind her she felt her heart thumping in her chest in a way that not even the criminal she fought earlier did. This was getting ridiculous he was her boss and he wasn't going to eat her, she'll just have to talk to Casein later.

Not happy but satisfied with her decision she decided to trudge to the lockers to hit up Casein and change out of her gear.

In the silent room laid a fox with spirit laid bare. July didn't quite know it but that outburst was the most personal Nick had been since Judys passing, he had no idea why he had opened up to the rabbit. 'Maybe it's because she's related or maybe I'm just taking my anger out at her' he mused while running his paws lightly over the chairs handrails.

Even though he felt emotionally spent he knew he had to prepare himself for the night and if he did get into contact with the lamb it would do him no good to go off on her, he desperately needed information - both from her involvement and what the Great Apes ultimate scheme was for the city. Nick wasn't dumb, he suspected that the corruption went far deeper than just a mafia group. There simply isn't any way the Apes could move so much hardware and mammals into the city discretely and had bribed and bought their way in. There was obviously some vector into the city he was not considering otherwise he would have stamped it out long ago.

He was well aware of the Mayors involvement in all this, the pig Swinton had been selfish and greedy and her own pride revealed too much to him to stop him from digging. All he could find in her involvement with the Apes was handwritten notes and destroyed chemicals which is hardly enough to go off of so that's why Bellweather excites him as she could be the keystone to unravel everything.

Nick laid back and began daydreaming back to an old memory he had with his lost mate.

"Hey Nick" said Judy, licking on a pawpiscle that Finnick was kind enough to give them for a 3% discount (Cheap bastard).

Not wanting to interrupt his lazing he didn't bother turning his head and simply responded "Yeah?"

"Have you ever thought about where the name Zootopia before?"  
Curiosity piqued he turned to face her in his lounged position. "What do you mean carrots?"

She continued between licks of the pawpsicle "Well it's a Zoo Utopia you know, even a country bumpkin like me can figure that one out" as she fluttered her lashes at him "But everyone is just so separate, mammals keep to themselves and don't really trust one another. Sure you can have things like the ZPD that uses many different mammals but when everyone goes home they're not really hanging out with each other you know?"

Nick wasn't really sure where this was coming from but he wasn't particularly in the mood for a political discussion so he decided to lighten the mood "Maybe they're all secret lovers and don't want anyone else catching on?"

She rolled her eyes and threw up her empty paw "I'm serious Nick, think about it. When I was a kit I read about how Zootopia was some place where you could be anything and all mammals respected eachother. Then I come here and realize that, no, bunnies aren't respected as Cops and no one trusts foxes to be anything more than swindlers and all the separation still continues to exist even though all these different mammals are basically forced to live together."

Realizing there wasn't any way he was going to realistically stop this discussion Nick sits up to reply "What did you really expect Carrots? I told you life isn't a fairy tale, maybe mammals are just not meant to live together."

"You know that's not true Nick, there is nothing stopping Mammals from living freely with each other, there is no reason it can't be a Utopia. All this separation is a mental trap we willingly put on ourselves." she stated, having since finished her pawpsicle and began chewing on the wood.

"Look Carrots it's just unreasonable what you want, at the end of the day you can want to be anything you want but we're still the mammals we're born as. Day one of meeting me you thought I was some sort of criminal and if you didn't catch the two of us doing our routine I'm sure I would have gotten hit with the mace" said Nick indifferently.

Having the decency of looking guilty and shamed "I said I was sorry Nick."

Heaving a sigh he reaches over to pull her to his side "I know Carrots but it just shows you how we just are who we are, if we didn't have that case together I'd doubt either one of us would have thought to pursue each other any further you know? You'd always just be a dumb bunny to me and I'd always be a conniving fox to you".

Judy thought about what he said, not the way he said it but how he sounded so defeated - as though Nick was a mammal waiting for their execution with no hope.

Several moments went unsaid between the two of them.

"No" said Judy finally, piercing the silence.

"No?" asked Nick quizzically.

"Chief Bogo once told me that the world was broken but I don't believe that. If it were broken as badly as you two make it out to be then what we have should have never happened." With that she turns around in his hold to look straight at him "I love you Nick with my entire being I love you, it doesn't matter that you're a fox and that I'm a bunny. If we're truly meant to be separate then this should never be possible."

Nick was overcome with the forcefulness of her expression "I love you too Carrots but we're the only couple that I know of like this, maybe we're just a freak occurence?" Nick couldn't help being cynical, when you've lived your entire life being beaten you'd rather stay on your knees and accept it then risk it again.

She violently shook her head "No I don't believe that, we love eachother because we love eachother and opened our bodies and minds to let it happen. I admit I didn't come to Zootopia as open minded as I expected -"

"That's an understatement" smoothly replied Nick.

" -But I learned. I was willing to learn and risk loving something everyone said I shouldn't and I'm so glad I did" she replied while snuggling into him.

"The world is finally ready, Nick. I know people are willing to learn and I know we can make this place a true Zootopia. We just have to do everything we can to make it happen."

Nick didn't know how to respond to this so he remained silent.

Pulling back she stared directly at him and he could have sworn he saw directly into her soul and the raging inferno of her passion threatened to consume him.

"I can't do it alone and I need the help only a dumb fox can bring, will you help me?" she asked while smiling.

'God this bunny is going to kill me' he thought as he stared at her. Nick had been betrayed and beaten his whole life. He didn't think there was anything in him beyond the cynical and goofy trickster but having her here, with her dreams and hopes so open and bare..

At first he was scared, his instinct was to crush it. To snap up her dreams in his jaws and rip it to shreds to save her the pain and agony that he had to endure when his dreams were destroyed.  
But he knew she was special, first day upon seeing her in that bright vest with the proud label of ZPD emboldened on it told him that. Truthfully he knew about the bunny hire well before she showed up, how can a successful conmammal survive without remaining on top of the flow of information otherwise? But her very presence shook things up as the first rabbit on the force since its inception. Then when she showed him that he was so much more and even revealed personal details that only his mother and Finnick knew to her he knew he was gone for her.

Her dreams were to create Utopia, to make this place perfect so that mammals could interact and live together. There is no hate, no anger, no more greed nor pain. Where they can be who they want to be and the only thing stopping them were thereselves.

He knew the answer to her question before she even asked it.

Ever since her death he refused to let her dream die, now instead he was working for the two of them. The problem with it is they had begun to realize that there was a surprising amount of pain in the city that wasn't brought upon by the citizens but the forces that be. For example he found out that if you're a CEO of a clothing retailer where the workers were planning on unionizing in a city which allowed it then what do you do?

Well normal thoughts would have went with negotiating with the workers, establishing a fair balance between what they want against your profits.

What Cierre Leon decided instead is to pay some actors to stage fake protests against pred/prey violence conveniently in front of local news agencies. Then when the second group of actors, all predators, came in to beat them up and break up the protest then it's all of a sudden a species war. Now the group that had been a fair mix of prey/pred that cooperated and fought for their benefits were at each others throats and suddenly the strike threat is gone.

Nick was cynical but this was beyond him, it just seemed like so much work and so destructive for such little benefit he had thought.

Until of course he found out that the past mayor had paid the Lion off to do so, inspired by Bellweathers efforts to rule with fear the porcupine formerly known as Patches, now known as inmate #532, apparently he did so because of his hatred of predators which Nick guessed working with a Lion CEO must have been painful for him.

Nick made sure to reveal the whole thing, it was quite fun to see the look on their faces as his investigation found them out.

Still the hate lingers, even though it was shown to be all a fabricated hoax the city was still on edge and Nick knew that there was so much more to this than he could understand. Two major players just so happen to slip up and let themselves be caught and almost right after that comes in a new mayor and right afterwards comes in a massive criminal force the city hadn't ever seen or dealt with before? Dollars to donuts there was a conspiracy here or his name wasn't Nick Wilde.

'I just have to take this one day at a time' he reminded himself, the virulence of the city digged far deeper and it would take some serious digging to root it out entirely. Still it gave him hope when he saw the subtle changes in the city and how just as Judy had always suspected mammals naturally wanted to be with eachother and it was unnatural to separate them rather than the other way around.

Still he doubted that Judy would appreciate the lengths he went to achieve her dream. Working underground as a secret double agent that no one on either side knew about. Using ZPD resources along with underground contacts to dig up hidden contacts and potential plots and conspiracies. Working the nefarious route allowed him to find potential headaches and with his authority as Chief allowed him to do something about it.

'It still wasn't enough' he thought, specifically because he was fighting against the corruption made him a huge target of the powerful mammals in the city, he had popular support of the people and he knew his officers respected him but that still doesn't stop News painting him as a 'controversial' figure. He figured Joe Camel who controlled the majority of the media in the city had some part in all this as well.

Coming back to the thought of his officers. He didn't 'hate' July but what she did was beyond reckless and how her sibling had died for going off on her own really struck a chord with him - almost to the point that he couldn't contain his condition. With the way she responded maybe the chewing out was all he'd need to do, he doubted the bunny was treated so firmly before so he hoped that was enough. As much as he didn't want to admit it he really enjoyed her spunk, her attitude was something he couldn't handle. Not only would it get her in severe trouble but she was just SO similar to Judy that it frustrated him whenever he saw her.

Looking at the clock on his desk he read 1600.

'One hour until showtime.'


	8. Dawn of Bellweather

Icelocker district was quite a unique location in Tundratown. When you combine the fact that the placement of taller buildings would block the sun for most of the day along with the location near a port that was frozen most of the year created a spot where permafrost coated and covered everything. Nick remembered old collegues of his who lived here and how they'd complain that heating and water would almost always be busted as the city refused to undergo the renovations necessary to fix the aged pipes that worked everywhere else in Tundra Town. The upside was that rent was cheapest here.

He wouldn't be surprised to find out that the inhabitants of the icelocker were the poorest in zootopia and just had no means of getting out as no mammal would willingly subject themselves to this. Even still crime was non-existent here as it was just so mind numbingly cold that even hardened polar bears refused to risk themselves trying to mug mammals here.

One thing Nick had discovered as a side effect of his condition is that his body was capable of surviving in climates that would otherwise endanger or kill other mammals of his physiology. He wasn't really sure what it was specifically that allowed it but it was as if his body was capable of self-regulating itself to a much greater degree than should be possible. So for example when he entered the frozen district his internal body temperature went up to the point where frostbite and pneumonia wasn't something he worried about. The colder he got the stronger the effect which was great for a stealth mission like this in which his cat disguise was covered in only a thin jacket rather than a typical puffy one that would certainly give away his position when it would crunch and shuffle as he moved around.

The downside with this self-regulation is that he wasn't magical and so to get this increased temperature would require his metabolism to power up which meant that he had to eat a tremendous amount of food before arriving, inhaling as many calories as possible to give his body to burn for heat. It was why his apartment would have empty jars of peanut butter littering his apartment. It was the easiest way he could think of for consuming a tremendous amount of calories, was cheap and most importantly an average sized fox buying a few jars of peanut butter turned far less heads than if he were to buy overflowing carts of food almost weekly.

Back to the task at hand Nick moved through icelocker with practiced ease. Making sure to step carefully and skulking slowly to avoid slipping and causing noise. The report stated that Bellweather was located on the third floor of a run down apartment complex located near the piers.

'Her wool was pretty soft' the thought came unbidden to him as he found and entered the apartment. 'It's probably why she can tolerate living in a shitty place like this at all' his thoughts continued although it still didn't really explain much, that's why she COULD stay but why was the more important question lingering.

He reaches the door to the apartment after slowly approaching the floor, not only did Nick had to be careful of any potential cameras that might have been installed without his knowledge but if any other inhabitants saw a mammal that clearly didn't belong here it would raise some alarms. He couldn't simply scale the side of the building even though it was so dark outside due to the permafrost making the walls far too slick for him to climb and he was batmammal, no magical utility belt for him.

He kneels down, a claw extends past one of his digits as he uses it to pick the lock. Now this trick was something he learned from his youth for honestly nothing nefarious. He just wanted to make sure that if for some reason he was trapped in some cage he could escape. The skill served him very well since then.

The light click of the door as the lock was opened was all he needed when he stood back up and very slowly pushed the door. The chilled hinge causing a light squeal as it was turned but unless Bellweather was some sort of secret ZIA agent he doubt she was trained to listen for these disturbances.

Sneaking into the opened door and shutting it carefully behind him Nick spent a second to allow his night vision to adjust and took in deep breathes to smell the history of the building. The distinctive smell of lamb certainly permeated here most likely confirming that Bellweather does live here but there was some other scent he didn't recognize. It had a rich musk mixed with spice that he simply couldn't place but made him think of the market at Sahara Square, how the sellers would frequent trying to sell bulk native spices to the inhabitants. Judy loved going there to see how other cultures ate and what they enjoyed but all the lingering spices just made Nicks nose stuff up.

Cataloging the scent for later thoughts he moved around the apartment. It looked clean enough, there were a few things sitting around but nothing that he could plainly see of interest. He doubted that someone as smart as her would just casually leave anything dangerous or incriminating sitting around for someone to find especially if she was risking her life by staying in Zootopia.

Nicks swift movement in her apartment covered large amounts of ground and he was silent as he searched, his predator instincts kicking in to silence his hunt for her. Until he pushed his disguised muzzle through an opened door and was confronted by a gun pointing straight at him.

"Who are you and what do you want?" the ewe confronted him.

It was such a weird feeling, the surge of adrenaline and enhanced survival abilities flowing through his system. Nick was normally a very intelligent fox and was capable of quickly reading a situation and learning a vast quantity of information, it's why he was able to crush the academics at the academy. However this feeling was beyond that, every second that passed in the real world was a minute for his overclocked brain. He was able to pick up every single detail and see everything that was happening. The way her stance was shoulder width apart for stability but her knees still shook lightly out of fear, or how her wide eyes scrunched the skin on the ewes aged face. The way that the scent she was giving off reminded him so much of how she smelt back when they first caught her, when the carrot pen crucifying her was revealed.

He moved so quickly that Bellweather didn't even see the feline move until the gun was no longer in her hands and her face was shoved hard against the hardwood floor with her hooves behind her back. At first she experienced shock, both because of the sudden movement but how the balance of power changed so rapidly. Then fear flowed through her as she struggled as hard as she could against the impossible grip of the feline.

But the grip was unyielding and fear was quickly replaced with anger.

"Get off of me!" she yelled out and she continued to struggle.

Nick wasn't sure how to proceed in this but maybe it was the sadistic pleasure he felt with handling a former tormentor or it could just be his own nature he calmly spoke out "Dawn Bellweather I have come to kill you" which he then emphasized by placing a paw next to her head and extending his claws out - the razor sharp talons more than capable of lopping her head clean off her shoulders.

With this she froze up and stuttered, no air could escape her mouth as she wracked her brain to figure out what to do.

"But -" Nick continued, retracting his claws and using the paw to turn her over to give her a look at him "I am not an unreasonable mammal and if you give me what I want I will spare your life."

'Well we have a crazy mammal that has me cornered. That's faster and stronger than me. I no longer have my gun and in a compromising position' she analytically thought 'so my choices here is either I can give this guy what he wants or die here.'

"What do you want" she said without a moments hesitation, ceasing her struggles.

Silently thankful she was being reasonable Nick released his grip and pulled her up to lead her to the chair in the corner of the room. Nick wasn't going to kill her as he was not that kind of mammal but that didn't mean that he wasn't above a little advanced interrogation as the ZIA liked the call it if it came to it.

When she was settled and her heart was settling he opens his muzzle "I just want some information from you, let's start out with the most obvious one" with that he steadily walked away with his back facing her but ears lifted up and twitching. Bellweather knew from his stance that he was just begging her to try something with that casual stance and wasn't about to get baited so she sat firmly in her chair. "Why are you still in the city that hates you?"

She was expecting something like that, even Lionheart had left Zootopia when he was ousted all those years ago and he wasn't even the one that initiated the conspiracy, so why is a lamb like her still doing in a place where obviously she was not welcome? Still if he expected her to just give her all her secrets and motives just because he caught her off guard he had another thing coming.

"Well what can you expect me to do cat? This city is my home, it was everything I knew of growing up - it's not that easy to let old dogs rest" she stated.

'I know that feeling' Nick thought as he didn't outwardly respond but rather said "You didn't answer my question lamb, there is nothing here for you now so why come here and live here?"

She wasn't sure what this mammal was trying to accomplish and was puzzling it out 'So he knows where I live and was told to kill me, that only means the Great Apes are out for me. But if that was the case then why is he asking me questions, why would a killer for hire care about their mark?'. She should have just answered the question but instead what came out of her mouth was "Why do you care?".

Nick was surprised to hear Bellweather ask this and turned around to face her, to look at her face - his honed ears heard the fluttering of her heart as he looked at her, she was afraid.

Instead of succumbing Bellweather powered on "Let's cut the crap here" with that exclamation she crossed her arms across her chest "the only reason I'd have someone out to kill me rather than arrest me is if they felt I was too much of a threat to be here. The only reason they'd think of little ol' me as a threat to whatever scheme they had was because I know too much about their scheme and the only group that have the right to think that are the Great Apes" she finalized with a nod of her head.

Now Nick was very surprised at how quickly she deduced the potential assailants origin but he guessed someone who was able to turn the city inwards would be a pretty sharp cookie.

She continued "So that explains why you're here, I know too much and was told to be killed I can understand that. But what I don't understand is why you're instead risking yourself to stay here and play 20 questions rather than executing me and moving on your merry way" she sneered at this point at him "So let's make a deal."  
Curiosity piqued Nick acquiesced "Well looks like you're smarter than you look" he jabbed "So I guess I'll play along, what's the deal?"

"I will tell you everything you want to know if you tell me why you care."  
Nick mulled it over, seemed reasonable enough so he decided to tell her but left out details that would let her connect the dots on who he was.

"You're right, I was sent here by someone. Not directly from the Great Apes but I suspect the orders came from them originally and yes I was told to silence you. Now the thing is here I have a juicy looking lamb" he licked his muzzle for visual effect "just sitting here against all sense of logic in the very town where she is persona non grata. You know us cats, killed by curiosity and all that and I just refuse to let something just so interesting die when there is obviously more to this story." At this he turned around to face away again "Now that I'm interested I just can't go ahead and kill you now you know? I've always been curious about the Apes so I want to know more."

Bellweather felt as though there was something more to this story but as stupid as that explanation was she really couldn't put it above the cat to have that honestly be the explanation for his involvement. She had known plenty of who she felt were incredibly smart and accomplished cats do stupid shit and chase dead leads just because it made them curious.

Sighing in defeat Bellweather responds "I'm here to give my knowledge on the Nighthowler serum."

Nicks interest was spiked now, he suspected that was her involvement but there had been no recent reports of the Serum since her arrival so he couldn't directly connect the two together.

"Nighthowler? You mean that stuff that hit Zootopia over a decade ago? Isn't there an antidote for that now?"

Bellweather shook her head "Yes and no, it's nighthowler but it's different. It's just..." suddenly her eyes sparked in recognition "You know" she said abruptly.

Nick didn't know where this came from "Know?..."

She slapped her hooves together infront of her "Yes, that must be why you took this case, you suspected nighthowlers. Oh don't play dumb with me I can see it on your face" as Nick grimaced when some hidden information was revealed, he had to be much more careful before she really did know too much.

Suddenly she stood up and Nicks instincts screamed to aprehend her but he recognized the face of someone on a mission before and let her retrieve whatever it is she needed to, even allowing her to leave the room.

"So I always suspected they were doing something more with the formula when I heard about what had happened a while back. The media hadn't said much of what happened but I have my sources" she said as she came back pushing a large box into the room. Opening it up revealed documents and papers to him.

"What do you mean?" Nick asked as he looked down at the labeled journals and documents with the names of chemicals he couldn't even begin to pronounce.

"So the story was apparently a gang was meeting in some abandoned warehouse you know stereotypical mafia stuff then the famous Judy Hopps comes in to stop them alone for whatever reason." At the mention of her name Nick involuntary shifts but notices no hint of malice in the ewe's tone when she says that. "Then the story ends with her partner Nick Wilde coming in to attempt to save her. Judy dies and everyone mourns her and that's the end of the story."

"But it's not the end of the story" she continues "We are led to believe that somehow in a room full of giant ruthless mammals who are known to be killers was somehow defeated by a single rabbit and fox with her being a casualty." She kneels up straight from the box and looks at him "Now look I know they're good, those two managed to figure me out."

He cooly responds "You seem rather unphased when talking about the pair of cops that did you in", she frantically waves her hooves infront of her "Obviously I'm pissed at them for getting me but hey I respect that they were able to, you know? I mean it's not like it's personal and the time in prison gave me time to think about how if our positions were switched I'd have done the same thing. So sure I hated Hopps for capturing me but I didn't want her to die, well at least I didn't want her to die now couldn't really tell you how I felt back then" she chuckles lightly.

Not really sure how to interpret this side of Bellweather he motions with her hand to continue her story which she picks up on "Ok so like I said, I just don't believe the story is just they capture them and she dies. First of all none of the mammals in the building were reported on after it happened which was the first suspicious thing. Usually they would say names or show them being led out in cuffs all heroic like to show how useful ZPD is and how much safer the city is" her attention was back in the box shuffling through it.

"So there were two questions that had to be answered, one was why didn't they announce any of the criminals which I assume meant that the powers were hiding something" she struggled as she found what she was looking for and tried to pull a file out from the bottom of the box "and second how was a bunny and fox able to overpower them at all which I think is this" she says as she pulls out a thin folder and hands it to him.

'ADONIS' read the front of the file, looking through it shows a few medical documents full of what looked like vital information. "What is this Bellweather?" asked the disguised fox.

"It's something I remember working at during my graduate studies at the ZBU" she replied. He knew about her time at the Zootopia Biomedical University as Bellweather was an aspiring doctor before deciding to develop the Nighthowler formula and tear the city apart. "Basically it was kind of a strengthening agent. Our department gets a grant from the military asking to develop some sort of injection that would increase strength and endurance."

"So basically a super soldier serum?" Nick asked while looking at her, he heard rumors about this but this was the first time it was confirmed that someone was trying to make it.

"Kind of but I doubt we'd make a captain Zoomerica out of it" she joked while milling around the box to see anything else of interest.

"So what happened to it, did it not work?" he asked, she shook her head "No it worked perfectly fine. The subjects were experiencing significant increases in their strength, some even up to 1000% their nominal max for their species and they were able to endure harsher conditions longer. I remember a tiger subject was able to stay submerged for over 20 minutes and have no lasting impact from it."

"If the serum did so well then what happened to it, why aren't we hearing about super mammals running around and jumping tall buildings?"

"Because a side effect of the serum was it destroyed the bodies cardiovascular system. We just couldn't figure it out but over time their heart rates would slow down and just stop, blood pressure would skyrocket and it became too hard for the heart to keep pumping blood so it would quit. We had to can the project and have the results sweeped up when our subjects started dieing off" she stated somberly "That file is all I was able to get from the project, everything else was either confiscated or destroyed."

There was a piece he was missing "So then if you had to stop because it killed people then what does this have to do with anything now?"

"Because I think they combined Nighthowler and ADONIS together and don't want anyone knowing about it" she finalized to him.

Ah, there it was.

"Nighthowler is most well known to increase aggression in the subject but what people don't know is that it operates on the Limbic system and overdrives your natural instincts. It also leaks into the brainstem and impacts involuntary things so like heart rate goes up and you breath heavier and so on." she had stopped searching through the box and was now pacing around the room, becoming fevered as she was able to recount her knowledge to the first interested party in years. "My thought on ADONIS was that it was not a blood thing, none of the subjects blood was any thicker or less pumpable after taking it. The heart wasn't injured in any way so I thought it was the side effect ADONIS had on involuntary reactions. It basically forced your heart to stop."

"But you think that they created a mixture of ADONIS and Nighthowler, one that counteracts the heart issues but retains the increased strength and ability from the ADONIS" Nick helpfully supplied, mentally connecting the dots.

"Yes!" excited that the cat was following along "Now I don't know if it works, how they did it or anything about it. My first thoughts was that the meeting was about the compound and when the cops showed up the fox, Wilde, was hit by it and that's how they managed to escape but he didn't show any signs of savagery and his blood screen didn't show any traces of it so I don't think he was hit."  
The information was coming in faster than he was processing so he put his paws in front of him to indicate her to slow down "Wait, how exactly do you have the ability to see a ZPD officers blood results?"

"I have connections" she stated neutrally.

Nick thought about it "So what? Because you know about ADONIS is why you think the mafia wanted to kill you?"

She nodded in assent "It's the only thing I can think of, obviously they have some sort of secret serum that only I know about".

"Then why not harass the other researchers, you can't have me believe you were the only one on this thing" he stated.

She appeared glum and looked away, "They were all killed". He didn't know what to say other than "I'm sorry".

She shook her head "It was after I was locked away, they started killing off members of my old research team, I sort of kne back then it was because of the new Nighthowler serum I made but couldn't make the connection."

"So then I don't understand, if your team is obviously being hunted then why are you here basically right there in their backyard. Do you have a death wish or something lamb?" he jeered.

A few moments of silence passed before she responded with a soft "No".

"Then what is it?"

Her reply shook the foundations of his entire world "Because I wish to atone."

"Atone?" he begun which she nodded.

"I had so much anger and hate in me. Growing up I dreamed of being the mayor you know, little ol' Dawn being someone important. But as I grew up my dreams kept getting shoved aside. I was just the lamb nerd and played second or third fiddle to everyone, even on my own research team all the credit was taken by the Wolf who was the senior in the group. When I joined with Lionheart with promises of being critical to his role, without me he would have never gotten the prey vote, and then being basically his bitch was just..."

She gulped, trying to reign back tears.

"I was so angry and took it out on predators. I hurt so many mammals with my actions, broke so many families and made things worse. It took me a long time to come to the conclusion that everything was already done and over with."

She wiped her face, cleaning silent tears "It hurts so much to know what happened was because of me, Zootopia was tearing itself apart. I regret it so much that I had to come back. If they had really developed an ADONIS serum working with Nighthowler then there will never be hope again that a Zootopia could survive. My contacts are all here and I need to do something to stop them."

She was now shaking so violently that she was going to fall apart at the smallest touch, but still Nick went in and wrapped her arms around the ewe who froze up in shock at the touch "There, there.." he soothingly said as he ran his paw gently down her back. At the touch the dam broke and she cried deeply into his chest. Allowing her a few moments to let it all out of her system he bit back the instinctual urge to joke that all lambs were so emotional.

He knew she was sincere. Not only because of the way her heart was beating or the subtle ways her body shifted or even the fact that she was giving him so much more than he had even expected. He knew she was telling the truth because he knew what this feeling was like, he knew the sorrow and regret and he knew she had changed.

She took deep calming breaths as she composed herself and asked the feline "So now I told you what I know, what is your actual stake in all this?"

Her simple statement pierced through the facade he built up of a curious cat and he replied seriously "Because whoever 'they' are or whatever 'they' want, I'm going to stop them."

"Why" she asked.

"Because the world is ready and deserves to be saved."

Staring at him for a few moments, trying to judge his sincerity and character from watching him she nodded once "Good then if you will let me I will help you achieve that goal cat".

'What a strange alliance I'm making' but he couldn't find anything wrong with having an experienced and intelligent lamb on his side "I do need the help but even still you need to get out of here, out of Zootopia. We can work together with you out but you're useless if some other hit man comes by."

"Alright I'll leave" and with that she scribbled a number on a spare sheet of paper and placed it in his paws, "Contact me, it's a disposable phone. I'll try to figure out a way to get you more documents and information to work off of. Basically everything I have."

Agreeing at the terms he reached out with his right paw and without flinching she put out her hoof to shake, cementing their alliance. With things settled the cat turned away and started to leave the room.

As he was about to leave he heard her soft voice sing over to him.

"Oh and Nick, rubber shrinks in the cold. Just for future reference."

Chuckling softly he left.

* * *

Obviously a rubber disguise is more a plot device. It's not like it's magic or anything but in the movie when the wolf puts on the sheeps disguise and looks like him I assumed there would be some crazy way it could work out so yeah.

That being said I'm moving soon so may not be able to update for a little bit. Will continue writing and updating when I can though. Let me know what you think of the story so far :^)

That being said let me know what you think of the overall story. It's one of those sort of things that will take time to really flesh out all the details so be patient in regards to overall plot (Unless of course there is something specific it seems like I've forgotten) but let me know if there's any structural problems (Like grammar/spelling/structure) so that I can fix it up.


	9. Svetlana Caterby

Damn she shouldn't have gotten that stupid pawpsicle.

I mean sure it was good but it's going to take **forever** to clean her fur from the stain.

Her beautiful white fur, stained with the sugary syrup? Doesn't really look as appealing as those raunchy novels would have her believe. Not to mention she cannot possibly imagine it being very comfortable either.

Whatever it wasn't that big a deal she'll just clean her self up when she gets home. It's her time off and it was going to be enjoyed even if it killed her!

"I told you not to get that thing Svetlana" tittered the Auburn Corgi next to her.

"Shut it Ellie, you're just jealous that you're just getting too chunky" she teased back.

Flushed from the comment she responded back "Don't act like you don't like a little junk in the trunk" while bumping their hips together, temporarily pushing the feline off balance.

Caterby looked thoughtful for a moment before responding "Of course babe, you know there's just more of you to love."

The two of them had known each other since they were both kits and ended up hooking up a year ago today which they celebrated with a stroll through the park. It was actually the normally reserved Corgi asking out the more outgoing feline for the first date which had been a simple trip to the library and a small dinner but of course it was done under the guise of just friends hanging out.

Then when she was taken to a carnival that sprouted up outside the city limits it was just another day of friends hanging out.

It was the fifth or sixth 'non-date' when Caterby decided to just take it in her own hands and kiss the stupid mutt, which of course she had to do when they were 'not-cuddling' in not the 'not our sofa'.

To her Ellie was the most wonderful mammal she had ever known, she was sweet and compassionate which showed in her work as an ER nurse. She was beautiful and she could be a literal blimp for all that mattered to the feline. She just loved her so damn much that Svetlana wanted to scream to the world at the top of her lungs about their love, professing at how a cultured snow white Persian cat can love a southern bell like no other.

But she didn't and honestly she most likely couldn't. Interspecies relationships were far less taboo now than when she was a kitten but interspecies and the same gender? That was pushing it way too far.

It was one of the reasons she respected her Chief because they were one of the first open interspecies relationships and they had paved the way to the current acceptance. Unfortunately she joined the force three years ago and never was able to meet Mrs. Wilde.

The tug on her arm broke her out of her thoughts, turning to her secret girlfriend looking at her questionably but not saying anything she realized that they had ended back at their apartment.

Deciding to save an explanation until later she slunk inside the place, a shared bedroom efficiency that they had moved into two months ago when both of their respective leases ended and also wanting to take the relationship to the next step, it worked perfectly fine for the cat as she always preferred cozier abodes as opposed to the luxurious mansions she grew up in with her youth.

"I'm going to wash this crap off me" she yelled out to the corgi as she shucked off the sticky garments and went to the bathroom. "Alright babe, I'm just gonna watch some TV" was the muffled response back through the closed door.

She didn't hate showering but like all cats she preferred staying dry but she liked not being a sticky gross mess far more so she turned the shower on and stepped it. The warm water did feel nice against her fur and once the water started to turn red from the melted syrup and her fur stopped with its clumping it felt even better.

She inspected her body and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. She still possessed the same lithe muscle from her physical job and training and the discrete scars from particularly rigorous cases was still present but carefully hidden underneath the soft fur. Her most personal scar was the smallest one, right at the base of her tail. When she had made her decision to break away from her royal heritage and be a simple cop in Zootopia her family had notched her tail as a symbol of her no longer belonging to their lineage.

The scar always brought up bad memories, the pain of the notching, the way her parents had treated her when she announced it and the fact that she left behind her younger brother when she left. The last one was her biggest regret as she had wanted to take him with her but the backlash against both of them would be far too great and she just hoped he would one day understand her decision to leave.

It was initially so painful to have gone through with it but when the healing process began she knew it was the best decision of her life. She had always loved helping people as the fact that as a noble she'd frequently help the village peasants and wasn't afraid to get down to dirty to do it, when she visited Zootopia during a diplomatic trip and saw different mammals of different species and backgrounds mixing and interacting with eachother it really just struck a chord with her and made her realize how wonderful it all seemed to someone so used to having distinct divides to everything.

So after fighting with her parents of what they wanted from their daughter to what she wanted of herself she gave up her cushy life to be a police mammal as her original plan of being a doctor wouldn't really work out with her no money and no credentials. It was pure luck being in the middle of Rainforest district and watching as a lion moved so quickly and effortlessly through the jungle to capture an escaping elephant only to find out that the Elephant was an infamous burglar and the Lion worked for the ZPD that made her quickly put in her application to join the force.

She was accepted, did very well in her training and was accepted into the main precinct located in Sahara square where she met all the officers and the first fox Chief. She always did like his no nonsense attitude, he would expect the best and give his in return and it was a breath of fresh air to have someone open and honest coming from a political family.

The scar now was a bittersweet memory to her, it held lots of sadness but good bloomed from it so she always looked at it whenever she felt down as it reminded her that things always got better in the end.

'I really need to just take baths and save some water if I'm going to sit in the shower this long' she ruefully thought as she turned off the water, stepped out and dried up to join her girlfriend in the living room.

Expecting the joyful face of Ellie who always broke out in a wide grin upon seeing her regardless of how long she was gone she instead saw the quietly snoring form draped off the side of the couch in an awkward sleeping arrangement. Sighing softly, she could never get upset at her little doggie, she lifts her from the floor to their shared bed - her thin muscles holding a surprising amount of strength.  
Looking at the clock when tucking her in read 4:32pm but she was a little tuckered out herself and a nap wouldn't hurt. With her decision made she decided to tuck herself in, spooning the sleeping corgi and slowly lulled to sleep.

* * *

So I'm currently in the process of moving and so I'll try to update whenever I can. Once again let me know what you think about the story so far.

I feel that so far the world isn't really that fleshed out, I mean here you have Nick and now Bellweather trying to fight against what they perceive as a broken world but there is almost no spotlight on the world. So as a break from the action I think it'd be important to kind of explain how everything is and kind of give an explanation for what their goals might be.


	10. Two Tailed Fox's Tale

Zootopia is pretty incredible when you sat down and thought about it. Finnick found himself sitting down and thinking more often ever since the years went on.

"I think you're just turning into one of those old foxes that sit down on the corner complaining about the youth and how things ain't what they used to be" Nick had joked to him when they were able to hang out.

Finnick smoothly responded "Well this fox isn't too old to bite your face off slick" before drinking his tea, something that he would never admit to Nick he'd started drinking to cut down on his caffeine addiction.

But getting back to the point at hand, people always thought Zootopia was incredible because you had so many different mammals living together and not killing each other. There was so much diversity between members of the same species that to have completely different species being able to mix together was a work in of itself.

Nick and he disagreed on many things, some things were stupid like who would win the national championships. He was better good money on the Cubs while Nick always chose the Lions.

But the biggest disagreement they had was that Finnick at his heart felt like things were good. That the level of cooperation mammals had with each other was incredible and that Zootopia was fundamentally a success and proof that mammals could live together.

While Nick felt like the city was effectively a failure and it was forced living and it would take a single spark to burn the city down.

See what he meant about members of the same species being different?

They both grew up roughly the same, they were both shifting conniving no good foxes. Finnick was generally a gangster since birth while Nick had started good, had a lull as a criminal then pulled himself out.

Finnick chalked it up to their views on the world. Finnick had been Nicks mentor when he was first starting out and knew the guy since he was basically a kit and would fondly remember back to those days.

"Hey Finn" said a gruff voice, stopping his reading of the news he looked up to see a large polar bear whose name he could barely remember.

"Hey what's up" the diminutive fox questioned.

"You remember when Boss said you were gonna get a new partner?" Finn nodded in response and he spied a small red figure step out from behind the polar bear.

"Well here is your new partner, names Nate or some shit I don't remember. Anyway you're gonna show him the ropes so enjoy" and with that the Bear lumbered out.

The Fox was a little taller than him which wasn't a surprise since Fennec foxes weren't known for their size. But what surprised him was how old this fox looked, he was just a kit to the criminal.

"Oh umm hey" Nate meekly said.

"Is your name actually Nate or did the dumb bear forget?" Finn questioned which the red fox responded with "It's actually Nick, Nick Wilde sir".

It took a while for Finn to accept that their boss would actually give him someone who he later found out hadn't even finished High School yet as his partner but found that the boy picked up on things frighteningly quick and when you got past his outer shell was just a sweet kid.

Learning his story made Finn sad but not really surprised, to grow up without a father and to be bullied for just being a fox wasn't some sort new occurrence as he himself dealt with the same shit in his life. He wasn't sure when it happened or why it even happened but Finn took it upon himself to mentor the boy in ways that weren't just about lock picking or stealing.

He never had any kits and never really planned to but guess some sort of protective instinct kicked in when he met Nick that he just acted like his surrogate father. Which meant that he would give him life lessons and even took him out to games and even went to a theme park once.

But it also meant that he curated the jobs they would receive harder. Finn wasn't at all squeamish when it came to gore and hell he had done things that would haunt him for the rest of his life but he'd be damned if he'd let shit like that corrupt Nick. When one day the old boss had been killed off by a rival gang he took it as a chance for the two to escape and then they started their own little business. It was actually Nicks idea to do pawpsicles actually and Finn initially wasn't sure but liked the idea after the money started rolling in. It was harmless too, the two just tapped into a market no one else thought of.

Ultimately Finn had dealt with this shit before, he saw the worst part of mammals and when you see the absolute worst they had to offer to see Zootopia as it was now amazed him. But he mused that since Nick never really had to deal with that he felt like what they had now wasn't good enough. A glass half empty vs half full debate he supposed.

But to Finn Zootopia wasn't just amazing because of this but when one day he walked from Sahara Square to Tundra town and nearly slipped and cracked his head did he realize just how abruptly the climate changed in the two regions.

The technical and technological skill it must have took to develop such distinct environments just blew his mind and he couldn't wrap his head around how it must have been done. Nick was always the smarter of the two, he could have asked him but I guess he didn't because it wouldn't have been as magical if there was a logical answer.

Speaking of the red fox Finn was currently going to their personal spot near the bridge they hung out but this time was all business.

"Learn something?" asked the Fennec Fox as he sat down next to the sitting other, his ears swiveling around to make sure no other mammals were around.

"Yes" as the fox nodded "Remember Bellweather?"

He thought for a moment "Wasn't she the lamb that started the whole savage mammal stuff and you said she escaped?"

"Yup, turns out I had a small chat with her yesterday last night"

Finn was the only other person that knew about Nicks double life, he warned him about how dangerous it was for Nick to do this shit. Both because of the physical dangers the underworld presented but because if someone found out it would serve to discredit everything that Nick worked towards.

But that stupid Fox was always too stubborn for his own good.

"So…. what? Did you just drink tea and discuss politics?" he sarcastically replied.

Nick rolled his eyes "No of course not Finn, turns out that there is some sort of super soldier serum she had made when she was a young researcher called ADONIS and she thinks that it may have been involved with Judys death and all the recent Ape activity."

Finn was intrigued at the name dropping of the bunny, he liked the rabbit day one when she was able to out hustle Nick and he mourned when she died.

"Super Soldier? What is this a comic book? How do you know she's not just trying to get one over you man?"

Nick pulled a file from god knows where and handed it to the fox, pausing to look at him he opens the folder and finds a file labeled ADONIS accompanied by what looked like medical mumbo jumbo to him.

"I looked into her background, she did do research into chemical compounds. She mainly developed stimulants and some refined steroids" he said while pulling out a paper "Here is a timeline of her work. Notice how it's consistent output and then all of a sudden there is a 5 year black hole with no information on what she did, what she was working on or where she was even located."

Finn did look over the document and it did look suspicious to have such an obvious void in her work history but still.

"Nick this sounds crazy, first of all why would some stupid steroid be such a big deal and secondly if this ADONIS stuff was true then why would the Great Apes be involved in something like this?"

"I'm not saying that I completely believe her Finn but the more I looked into the Ape case there is obviously something going on. Just recently there was a missing shipment of an important base chemical for ADONIS according to Bellweather and you know I think it may have something to do with what happened to me."

Nick was always intentionally vague with what exactly it was that happened with him, all he knew is that after the confrontation in the warehouse that ended up killing his mate Nick had gained incredible speed and strength with unusual temper flares. He was careful now with it but Finn could still remember having to explain to his car buddy that the crushed inside of his van was due to hitting a pole and not an enraged Nick smashing it in.

At this point he knew Nick wasn't going to bother telling him what happened and he respected that.

"Alright well looks like you've been a busy bee" Finn said as he bumped his best friend with his shoulder.

"Yup but I still have a lot to go through and look into now, what about you got anything for me?"

Finn nodded "Yes you have a leak."

Nick sombered at this news, he knew that someone at the ZPD was acting as an informant but this confirmed his fears. Just one too many bags of misplaced evidence allowing suspects to get off the hook, one too many failed raids where they'd barge into a meeting room planned for months with no suspects present. Someone was either planned as a plant and feeding information to their boss or there was leverage in place of an existing agent.

"Do you know who it is?" Nick asked but already knowing the answer before the Fennec fox solemnly shook his head "No, whoever it is has their tracks covered good. The only reason I found out about it is because a buddy of mine owed me one but he seemed scared shitless to admit even that much to me."

Nick nodded, more mammals were disappearing every day so even though it angered him to not know who it was he couldn't blame the mammal for not telling Finnick who it was. You'd not only anger your criminal bosses but you had crooked law enforcement who would be more than willing to conclude your 'suicide' investigation. Nick wasn't naive, there was no way it was just one single agent at the ZPD able to do all this. There must be crooked lawyers, federal investigators and other agents all in on this so getting a single name would do nothing more than scapegoat at this point but let the big fish off.

Sighing softly, the fact that he hadn't slept at all in the last 24 hours and just how much he had to do resting hard on his old bones.

Finn caught the cue "But that all can wait, what do you say about a pawpsicle? 50% off for a good friend."

Nick scoffed "How can you charge a good friend for a pawpsicle Finn?"

He shrugged "Hey a mammals gotta make profit somehow."


	11. Realistic simulations

Nick shuffled through his finals again, pouring over every single detail the files presented to see if there could have been anything he missed.

He rubbed at his eyes, it getting harder and harder to keep them open as the midnight oil kept burning away, looks like this will be another all nighter for him.

'Well it's not like I can do this during normal business hours' he idly thought as he started to thumb through the file on the resident lion in their little community.

'What would that look like if someone came in while I had stack of everyone files right in front of me? Oh hey guys looks like you ruined the surprise guess I have to promote everyone!'

Well he was getting to the end of the files anyway, normally it wouldn't take so long to just go through a roster of 20 officers and a handful of support staff but he had to be thorough and had a system in his mind on what would most likely be the leaks.

First he reviewed some financial information on each of the mammals. Everyone except the support staff had background checks done and he was able to pull some strings in the underworld, this allowed him to see if a background check revealed any sort of debts or financial vulnerabilities and with his other connections he was able to see if anyone was doing anything under the table.

The reason he did this was because this wasn't some sort of zollywood movie and most traitors and leaks come from people who owe money and then here comes Mr. Savior with a life saving loan where they only had to a 'small' favor for them.

This initial sweep turned up nothing out of the ordinary as it hadn't before. There were a few small details but Nick seriously doubted that a Rhino doing under the table construction work on the weekends was a vector into the ZPD.

The second he then looked into was does the individual have any sort of checkered history one that could potentially come back to haunt them. The fact that profiling shit like this is exactly what happened to him for most of his life and that he was doing it, the irony was not lost on him at all.

Still sitting on this end of his desk rather than the other one impresses on him the importance of it and profiling is done only because it historically worked. So he kept shifting through the files.

Once again nothing new or special turned up, there were some individuals such as Huffer would concern others but he knew that throughout his rough background he was a great officer and would never betray him and by extension the ZPD.

Of course he had to have a more extensive check done on him and had to get more information on his history form his illicit contacts but that wasn't because he didn't trust him at face value - a Chief had to be absolutely sure, I'm sure Huffer would understand if he ever found out.

The final method was actually a method he had devised and he wasn't even sure if it worked since he never caught anyone or anything with it but he continued to do it. It was to look at the dates of submitted paperwork. Since the process to fully apply to the ZPD was so lengthy and that there was simply so much paperwork to slog through that the typical time line from first application to final acceptance into the Academy was 4 months. Nick managed to squeeze himself in by the 2 month mark with his natural charm.

'And the help of a little old bunny' he thought, smiling softly.

So his guess was that if a person could get into the Academy substantially faster than 4 months means they had some sort of additional help but the only one that really stood out was Casein which made sense as her father was the old chief of police.

"Ugh" he suddenly said out loud "There is just nothing here, I don't get what I'm missing" as he threw down the final folder onto his messy desk. The haphazard display of personal information would make the most prudent security blush with how he was skipping protocol and proper file handling.

"Although if anyone else saw this I'm sure I wouldn't have a job to worry about stuff like that, maybe I'd actually see the inside of that prison" he continued to speak to no one.

It dawned on Nick just how tired he really was. It was worse than the standard fatigue he would feel from doing these stupid all night events, it was a feeling deep in his soul as he felt himself slowly sinking to his desk against his will. His muscles having gotten too heavy for him to keep himself upright, his lack of progress and frustration of how far behind he was on the curve of secret dealings and alliances was just too much.

Nick's head softly lands ontop of the pile of papers and his eyes close.

* * *

His eyes shoot open and he looks at his watch reading 0700, it looks like he managed to wake up just early enough to get his papers in order. Bracing his paws against the edge of the desk he pushes himself back up. He then wipes at his muzzle and when it comes back dry he silently thanking his sleeping self for not having drooled all over the important documents as it would be hard to explain why fox spit was all over the files.

After sneaking over to the filing cabinet located in another room in the building he slips back the documents and let's himself relax for a brief moment. Deciding to chance looking down at himself he finds his uniform pristine as if he had just put on a fresh pair rather then slept in it.

'That's odd' he thinks but this was honestly the first time he slept in his Uniform so he didn't have anything to base it off of. Shrugging he goes to the coffee mess to brew himself out of this mental haze he's stuck in.

The journey to the coffee machine was quite a bit longer than he had thought and honestly he could have sworn that he saw that desk before 'Do we have two Wilde's?' he thought initially as he saw his name placard a second time without the until he saw the small framed picture sitting lone on the desk.

He could remember when the picture as clear as day. It was the day that Judy had proposed to him which honestly when he thought about it didn't surprise him that much, she always was the one to take initiative.

"Hey Nick" she asked while he was lazing in the sun, why does all his dreams involve him lazing around somewhere?

"What's up Carrots, this not your idea of fun?" he joked with her as she idly messed around with his fluffy tail.

They've been going out for a while now as was shown when he would let her do whatever she wanted to his tail. In Fox culture that it was a big deal to do something like that, it meant that you trusted another mammal enough to handle a part of you that was not only very sensitive but also an important indicator of your overall status as the quality of fur on the tail was the first to go whenever a fox would hit hard times - a fact not lost on him any time he'd see one of his species in jail.

"No it's not that, it's just..." she released his tail as she trailed off.

He didn't look when she let go but did turn when he heard the shuffling as she adjusted herself to sit next to him, now both lounging in the sun baked grass.

"Nick when I was a kit I had my entire life planned out, I knew what I was going to do every day of every year." she started again as Nick smirked in response "I knew you were crazy but not THAT crazy fluff."

She lightly bopped his nose "Stop it and listen you jerk, like I was saying I always wanted to be a police officer and I knew how I wanted to do it too."

She grabbed his paw "Everything was going how I've always thought it would that was until I met a dumb fox."

She started gently rubbing his arm at this point, Nick remained silent as he wasn't sure where this was going.

"At first I detested this fox as he just threw a wrench in my life and changed things from what I had planned out so carefully. But then the more time I've spent with him the better my life has been."

She took a deep shaky breath, Nick noticed she was noticeably shaking at this point.

"Carrots..." He started but was softly quieted by Judy.

"Nick I just want you to know that you're still a dumb fox and the only thing that's changed since we first met is you're my dumb fox."

She moves again to a bag she had laid away from them and when she comes back he notices a small black felt box in her right paw, when she started to knee next to his position his heart started pounding.

'Is this what I think it is?' He thought looking at her.

"Nick will you do me the honor and be my dumb fox for the rest of our lives?"

He sits there wiping away at the tears that seem to have materialized in his eyes, it was always bittersweet to remember his mate but as much as it hurt he would never give those memories up.

It still doesn't really explain why both desks were here as Judy's desk was removed long ago and his desk was now located in the office he had just left.

When the desks started melting and molten remains started pooling around his feet he realized he was dreaming.

"So let me ask you a question" came a voice in the darkness, his ears picked up and he spun around to look into the void - parts of the room having seemingly vanished when the dream state was discovered.

"I already know the answer" the disembodied voice continued "So you don't need to answer but I just want you to think about it."

Nick was straining his ears to figure out the location of the voice, it may be a dream but dreams have a funny way of leaving important details in subtle ways.

"Yeah, what is it then?" was his gruff reply as he started wading through the desk muck.

"What do you hope to accomplish?"

It was such a simple question but before he could respond the voice followed up "Not what you tell other mammals" the voice chided "We both know it's not because you're trying to fulfill a dead rabbits silly dream so what is it really?"

He couldn't really stop the pearls of anger from bubbling up inside. Nor could he stop the pulling back of his muzzle exposing his razor sharp teeth or how the skin on his digits retracted as his claws came out. He also definitely couldn't stop himself from shouting out to the inky black sea "Who the fuck are you and what do you want?". It was one thing for some weird dream ghost to mess with him but insulting his mates dream was taking it one step too far.

The voice was now coming from all directions now and the rest of the dream police precinct dissolved into more of the inky void, he was barely treading the dark abyss at this point.

"Who I am is not important and what I want is not important but if you're going to do what you're going to do... you need to be fully committed" the voice enigmatically stated "If you truly believe your mission and if you are willing to risk everything to fix this world then and only then you will know what you need to do".

The energy to fuel his rage vanished as he struggled to keep himself above the water as it felt like he was getting sucked in, each time he'd come up for air he'd get pulled deeper into the water.

Right before his head vanished beneath the currents for the final time he heard the voice say "Different paths end in different ways, what would a ranger scout do?"

Then he was pulled down into the depths.

Nick shot up, breathing hard as he felt his heart pound in his chest. He still couldn't understand why all his nightmares involve drowning in some way, he liked swimming so it was odd but it must have meant something.

'Oh fuck' he cursed looking down at the spittle on the file.

'Hope they believe it was some coffee or something if someone sees this and speaking of someone' glancing at his watch read 0540 so he did have time to put the files back. Standing up his bones creaked and shifted under his muscle his advancing age creeping up on him. His uniform was fairly disheveled but nothing too terrible. Nick pinched himself and the feeling of pain didn't help alleviate his worries about whether or not he was still dreaming, his dreams becoming more real and the sensations impacting him more each day. It was a shame he didn't have any peppermint at his office for just this situation but since he never slept at his desk it hadn't been an issue before.

"Well guess I'll just assume it's real until I know differently" as he cleaned off his desk and went to put the files back into their respective lockers. Afterwards he went to the coffee machine and the journey there was thankfully short and uneventful and the walls didn't fall apart from around him which was assuring.

He could see the faces of mammals walking around in this early morning through the ZPD windows and the sun begin to come over the horizon signaling the start of a new day.

He still felt dead tired as that little nap didn't help at all, thinking about what his dream ghost had asked him he made up his mind.

"I'm going to take the day off."


	12. Layers of an onion

Coming into the office Huffer saw Chief looking like death warmed over. This was pretty common since the mammal had a tendency to stay in the building for way too long but what wasn't common was he decided to take the day off rather than power through it like he normally did.

What was especially not common was that he elected to set him as the acting Chief in his absence. I mean there wasn't another time he could compare this to but he had expected Casein to be elected as the acting Chief, both because of her tenure at the place and the fact her father was the old Chief.

He wasn't alone in these thoughts.

"So porky why are you special today?" ribbed Nangi as the elephant lightly nudged him, light to the elephant almost bowled the Boar over.

Getting his bearings he replied "No idea man, guess maybe Chief wants to see how I act with more responsibility?"

That made sense to the both of him, the fox seems to have taken a special liking to the boar for whatever reason but being thrown into the position so suddenly made the boar nervous.

"What if I don't do a good job" said the boar, a rare open showing of his fears to his best friend.

A large hoof was gently placed on his shoulder, he looked up to Nangi's eyes as the elephant said "Don't worry about it, you'll do a great job just do what you always do and take things one step at a time. No point worrying about things that aren't here yet you know."

The little pep talk did visibly calm down the Boar as he nodded "You're right, just going to first focus on getting coffee and then I'll start with everything else."

Smirking, the elephant walked away to get his gear.

* * *

Nick was absolutely exhausted when he arrived home and he blinked out into oblivion the moment his head hit the pillow.

He woke up, transported to another home - one that he had lived in with Judy before deciding to move to his small efficiency. He immediately knew that a dream was taking place which meant that it was unlikely it was going to be another nightmare, something he was silently thanking for. He's gotten better at lucid dreaming over time and now he was not only able to know when it was a dream without using the peppermint but it was easier for him to explore - his mind actually being far more expansive and developed than even he had known.

But as being in the dream was getting easier it was getting harder each time to wake up. Bellweathers declaration of the serum he had been hit with at the warehouse was a supposed combination of Nighthowler and this new ADONIS serum made some sense to him. He was able to slip into rage that he never knew could be possible and it was just SO hard to pull himself back out when his instincts screamed at him to tear whatever it was apart. The fact that he was able to sprint at his maximum speed for basically forever at this point and that a misplaced paw was capable of collapsing a paw also tipped him off about the ADONIS effects, he had to be careful to appear exhausted after exerting himself and to pull himself back lest he get unwanted questions.

But one thing that she didn't mention was it's impact on his mental state. Each time the effects were activated in any way seemed to make his dreams more vivid - more real. Each time it activated it made it more difficult to wake up and each time it made him lose the connection to what is real and what is a dream.

It was as if his brain was slowly losing connection with his body and it was only a matter of time when he would go to sleep only to never wake up.

The truly scary thing was he actually didn't know if he would prefer that to happen or not.

So as usual in this dream Judy plodded up to him from the kitchen, sipping on some disgusting carrot and kale combination she drank to stay fit.

"So thinking about who the leak is?" asked the rabbit, another funny thing about his dreamscape is that since he was aware of it he could control everything going on here. Typically it meant that Judy would act in the way he interpreted Judy to naturally act but other times, like now, he was letting 'Judy' speak out his thoughts to help him puzzle out the solution to a problem.

"Yup" he said before grimacing when the scent of the poison hit him "This is my dream, do you seriously have to be drinking that stuff?"

Taking a long sip "I mean you be floating in an empty black void and talk to a disembodied voice but you'd rather see your old mate sip on some weird juice shit" Judy said without seeming apologetic.

Yeah he kind of knew that.

"Actually before we talk about the Leak, what is the deal with the nightmares and the dude in the suit? Isn't it my dream, shouldn't I know about who it is?"

Judy placed her glass down on the table before sitting on a lone seat in the room.

"Not necessarily, as you know you have no real control of your nightmares. It's coming from deeper in your subconscious and maybe it's giving you information that you know but don't remember." before he could speak she cut him off "I know it's weird to think about it but" sweeping her arms she involved her body in the explanation now "Normally mammals don't have access to the Dreamscape so there's no difference between the levels of subconscious to the waking mind but the deeper you go the more you're ruled by emotions rather than higher level thought."

"So if you think about it whenever you're in a nightmare it's always filled with some sort of emotional pain or suffering, you can't just walk around freely because the dreamscape is different there and you have less control since it's a part ruled by things in your mind that aren't controllable with free will." She really was as beautiful as Nick remembered her he realized, the fact that she was a mental construct didn't hide that from him.

"Compared to here, your dreams like this are crossing the boundry into your deeper thoughts. You're just underneath the surface so you can still tread the waters and it's also why you're able to have free control here."

That made sense to Nick, the deeper in his mind he got the less he could control it as it was reaching the points that he wouldn't normally be able to control in the real world but one thing still eluded him "Then how do you know things that I don't or the dream suit guy, if you're my mind then why don't I know it already?"

She shrugged "You're not god Nick, you can't retain everything in your conscious thoughts without effort. The things I tell you are things you've learned before but for whatever reason they weren't considered vital enough to have on immediate retrieval so I'll only know things you have already learned but I'm not going to tell you absolutely brand new information."

That also made sense "So then the dark suit guy? What's his deal? If my mind at that level is just nothing more than raw emotion then how am I able to imagine some sort of cognizant figure that can talk to me like that?"

With that she shrugged "I don't know actually, honestly it shouldn't be possible. My thoughts on this is that either the serum they injected into you had something to do with this or something had happened to you before, something so powerful that it left this lingering image. I just can't tell you anything about the who or why."

Nick sighed, another path remains dark to him "So what about Bellweather, think we can trust her or that she isn't just setting me up to be another statistic?"

Judy pulled up her glass again to drink which made Nick grimace "I mean she seems sincere to me. Think about the fact that she's holed up in some shitty place for some long enough amount of time to be noticed by the Great Apes and that she had a personal death sentence set out by them."

"Yeah but there's things that I just can't figure out. If she's involved in some sort of conspiracy super soldier stuff then this wouldn't even really involve the Apes at all, I mean this is government level stuff in some secret testing facility and not another random drug on the streets. If she was involved in this then first I don't see why they'd be putting out a hit for her and two why would they just put out a random little ad out on some small time hitman to take rather than getting a professional they cant trust."

Judy thought for a moment before responding "No idea but I agree it is suspicious and I doubt Bellweather knows more than she was letting you know, what I think is that either the Apes are just a front - I mean we already know the Mayor is most likely paid off and I wouldn't be surprised if more weren't which let the Apes establish so rapidly, or the Apes are some sort of diversion and that there is more going on then we realize."

She paused and wiped her maw "Think about this, how many mammals do you know of that are currently targeted by corrupt officials that are commonly in the spotlight? Right now it's only you. You've been a massive pain in the ass for them for years now and they know you must be getting close to figuring it all out. I mean let's be honest you wear some stupid cat costume and go take on mercenary work, how long do you think it would have taken these mammals to figure out what you were up to?"

Nick felt a flush of embarrassment, even dreamscape Judy insulted him! Where could a fox go to get a little respect around here?

If she noticed he was embarrassed by the reply she didn't show it. "So they have Bellweather here and they have you who they hate and have a bad history with. They can't just straight up kill you since they either don't think they could or don't think they could hide it well enough. Instead they create some sort of hit and give it to the squad they know you work with which sends you to Bellweather knowing that either you end up doing the job which removes her or you get involved in whatever the hell she's involved in and divert your attention off of them. You lose sight of what's important, they get to do whatever and best of all there's nothing anyone could do to prove any of this."

Nick always sort of suspected this but getting told this by your inner thoughts kind of puts it into perspective.

Breaking him out of his thoughts 'Judy' spoke again.

"I actually have a question for you" which grabbed his attention "Why did you elect Huffer as the Chief in effect rather than Casein?"

He still felt a bit sheepish about the decision "Because he needed the experience and I felt that it would be a good way for him to show how much he's developed since first arriving?"

"And because you suspect Casein is the leak, right?" Judy knowingly said.

He had a momentary look of surprise on his face before realizing "Oh yeah of course you're me, of course you'd know."

"Why Casein though, what would she have to gain?"

"I don't know" he honestly said "But for someone who not only has a legacy to back up she seems to do as bare minimum as possible. Now I'd normally just chalk this up to someone who is lazy but all the work given to her is done immediately, she has never shown up even a minute late to work in years and she's been pushing pretty hard to be part of the dispatcher unit which is typically something mammals hate to do. It's just too suspicious to me to think of as pure coincidence."

"So someone who likes their current job and maybe wants to try something else and also who does their job and is punctual is suspicious to you?"

Second time feeling flustered he replies quickly "Well I didn't say I think she was the one but I just didn't want to give someone I was currently suspecting the ability to hound through everyones personal files and any classified material.

Not entirely agreeing but nodding anyway.

"My head is starting to hurt, I'm going to just enjoy the rest of the dream" and with that Judy stopped acting like Nick and started acting like the Judy Nick thought she was. She tackled him on the couch before giving him a soft kiss on the mouth.

He started coughing. Spitting out as he did so.

"Euurgh Carrot and Kale, how can you drink that shit Fluff?" he dramatically replied while wiping his mouth.

Rolling her eyes she smacked him "Shut up Dumb Fox."


	13. Not quite revealed

Collaboration with Bellweather wasn't bad at all to Nick, she was surprisingly polite and with their history there wasn't really a need for either of them to play games with each other.

"So what exactly happened when you were in the warehouse anyway?"

He flinched, straight to the point as always but it was something that everyone was curious about and no one other than Bellweather was willing to ask.

"You know what happened Dawn" he smoothly deflected.

He wasn't looking at her but he could feel the rolling of her eyes anyway "I know what the information was on the news and I also know that what the ZPD put in their reports is the same" he wasn't too surprised at this knowledge, mammals had the right to request basic case information on cases that had been concluded by the ZPD "But I know there is more to what happened that was intentionally omitted by the fox involved".

At this he turns to her. Even though he remembered seeing a similar look on her before and in more dire circumstances he still couldn't take the cute little ewe with her face screwed up like that seriously.

'Bunnies always had a tough time with being called cute but I'm guessing lambs run into the same issues' he mused.

With the practiced charm he continued to move the conversation into a more comfortable place "So you're saying that you don't believe the news and the ZPD and now you're asking me about it but you already know that I was the only source of information for that report and those news articles, so why would you start believing me now?"

Nick could have attempted to deflect the conversation again but experience taught him that mammals on missions would only be pushed aside for so long before they'd start digging deeper themselves. Nick had the choice of either refusing to give any information which would strain his newfound relationship with her and cause her to get in over her head.

Or... He could give her information in a way only a fox like him could, carefully curated to make her feel like she was getting the full picture but still keeping the truth in the dark. It would serve to fulfill her curiosity and keeping her happy.

He sighed, doing so to make her think he had given up his charade when he was only just beginning.

Honestly he sometimes scared himself at how manipulative he was capable of being.

"Alright you got me Bellweather" he started and watched carefully as her face shifted from one of accusation to another of rapt attention.

'Got her.'

"So to begin, even I don't know the full story. You'd have to ask Judy for what happened before I showed up."

Even after all these years he still couldn't stop the pain filled grimace from entering his visage when he mentioned her name on that faithful day.

"So there I am just enjoying my day off and of course Judy just couldn't simply relax so she goes out and I didn't really think much of it since she was usually going out anyway."

The thing about lies is that you had to recollect the truth and then change it, even as he was trying to omit information to Bellweather it still hurt to think about it.

"Next thing I know I'm getting a call from my Chief, you know the big old war ox that took you in the first time around" he said while flashing a smug grin at her while she looked like she didn't mind the comment.

"Apparently Judy had found some sort of developing situation with a couple of the gangs in Zootopia and of course being Judy she just 'had' to get right in there. But at least she bothered to call it in this time before jumping in" he bit out.

"So I rush to the last reported location and of course she's not there and being in the outskirts of Sahara Square I had my pick of possible locations she might have went into. I didn't have much information to go off of other than that it was supposed to be a large warehouse and some sort of meeting was going on."

Nick paused for a moment and looked away.

"It took me over ten minutes to find the location and by then the rest of the ZPD was close by but too much time had passed I had to pull the same stunt that Judy pulled I just couldn't sit there for even one more minute."

How did the chair get into his paws? He didn't remember grabbing it.

"I snuck into the building as quietly as I could but ended up being caught anyway, stupid wolves and their sense of smell."

The chair seemed pretty sharp all of a sudden.

"I got my head covered in a bag and knocked around for a while. Then I felt a prick on my arm, I'm guessing they had injected me with something and the next thing I knew I was stuck in a cage with Judy."

He looked down at his paw, huh looks like he crushed the chair post and it splintered without him realizing it.

He took a deep shaky breath and let the wood drop from his paw, streamers of blood falling with it.

"She looked like absolute shit Dawn. I mean it's hard for me to describe what the hell it was like seeing her like that. Bones were sticking out in her skin as they had clearly snapped her arm, her face looked like ground bugs and she was wheezing hard."

Damn he just couldn't stop the tear from slipping.

"I looked around and saw all these mammals surrounding our cage just sitting there and watching. When a growl escaped my throat and it became harder for me to concentrate I figured that they must have drugged me with nighthowler. Must have been some sort of exciting thing for them to see a feral fox tear apart a bunny bet some of them got their rocks off on that shit."

It started getting hard to breath with all the snot clogging his snout.

"I couldn't... I couldn't..."

He tried to continue but his voice was caught in his throat. When he felt the soft press of wool against his fur and saw the small ewe hug him his tense body relaxed ever so slightly.

"I couldn't think anymore, I don't remember what happened but I do remember one thing."

He pulled himself back up to his full height.

"I killed them all. I remember that part so clearly like it happened moments ago."

He slipped his arms out from her grasp to gaze at his paws infront of his face.

"I remember my claws tearing through the steel of the cage, slicing through them. I remember the feeling of gristle surrounding my arm, the feeling of cut bone on my claws and the smell of blood."

"It was just so much blood Dawn, I don't know if it was because I could only see red or the ichor coated everything. Sticking to every surface and making it more and more difficult to move as the pouring continued. The smell was the worst, it was so revolting and putrid I attempted to tear my snout right off to make it all stop. The pain was what made me stop and come to my senses and by then I was surrounded by a now dead Judy and dozens of dead mammals."

A light pat on his chest made him realize the ewe was no longer holding onto him and instead stood a few feet away, her face didn't give him any information on what she thought.

"Look Nick. Maybe I was wrong about asking you about what happened so early and whatever it was that actually happened must be something you keep close to your chest and I respect that. So I'll ignore that lie, as fanciful as it sounded, and just ask you one thing that I do hope you can answer truthfully."

Stunned Nick sputters out "B-but what? Why do you think I'm making it up?"

With that she grinned "There are too many holes in your story. Not to mention that the ZPD would have clearly heard some sort of slaughter like that occur and most importantly I remember reading that description of blood and ripping your snout off from some book."

'Damn, didn't think anyone else read the Lord of the Manor by Wolfsbane' he thought.

"I mean it was really exciting don't get me wrong but it's a bit over the top you know. Like I said it's too much for me to ask something like that right now and I'm sorry for making you relive it."

Nick was stunned again, how did Bellweather change so much since the last time they met? Was she always like this and he just didn't know it before?

"But please answer me this one question truthfully" with that he nodded dumbly "What do you have to gain from doing any of this? You're a respected Chief of Police and a role model for foxes everywhere, why are you risking all that just to catch a few crooked politicians and corporations?"

Without hesitation he broke out of his stupor and responded.

"Because Judy made me realize, for the first time in my life, that I could be more than what I ever thought I could be. That there was absolutely no reason that I couldn't be who I wanted to be. The world was broken and I had the capability in myself to be the change that fixed it."

She responded just as quickly "And you're willing to go to war over this?"

"I have to admit I'm still a conmammal at heart and wouldn't take a risk if I didn't think the payout would be worth it. I'm willing to put my entire being into making the world a better place. This time it's not because I think I could benefit from it but because the world will long after I'm gone."

She shook her head "Life is a funny thing sometimes, just a month ago I would have never figured out I was about to get roped into a crazy secret war with a fox holding a death sentence. But I guess life's what you make of it."

Feeling satisfied with her response he let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding "So what's the plan of attack now?"

She went back to the table with scattered plans "The mammals you're looking for hide in plain sight. Some are innocent but most are implicit in all of this. Most of these mammals live in ivory towers where they think they're invincible and nothing can touch them."  
Nodding "Alright so then what do we need to do to reveal them?"

She smirked "It's like my father used to say, if you want new crops to grow you have to burn the field."

* * *

Sorry for the holdup on chapters, there has been some difficulty with setting up on my end and so a fair bit has been on my plate. I'll of course try to update whenever I can but I'd rather provide quality rather than just quantity.


	14. Old ghosts

"Pawpiscles, get your pawpsicles here!"

The scene was almost the same as any other day. A small fox was out slinging his wares which happened to be paw shaped Popsicles. Selling this frozen treat in the blistering heat of summertime Savannah Central was a brilliant ploy. Although it required more careful timing on when to set the sale on the fox's side as the treats would quickly melt if not sold.

The only difference here was the small fox was joined by a ewe, brown in color and older in appearance. Looking carefully at this new addition to the stall elicits strange feelings. The sense that you recognize this mammal and the lingering tendrils of half remembered memories that just can't reach the surface.

But thankfully lunch time in the Square was far too rushed and busy for any mammals to stop and put 2 and 2 together.

It was mostly Nicks idea, Bellweather was assumed to have been long gone and only the older mammals would have a chance of recognizing her anyway, so just a simple dye job and some makeup went a long ways away to disguising her appearance.

Finn remembered the little discussion the ewe and other fox had.

"You can't be serious Nick. I'm one of the most well known fugitives in the entire history of ZPD. I'm a smaller than average ewe. I've been on the run for years and already have people that know where I live. How could a little dye possibly help?" she accused.

He mostly halfheartedly shrugged in response "Hey I walk around with a piece of rubber and fake fur stuck on my body and I've been able to do just fine for all these years. Never underestimate how little knowledgeable mammals care and how knowledgeable mammals who care are."

So she went with it and of course it worked and it was just so interesting to him to see how she reacted to this knowledge. It was like her self imposed chains suddenly broke and she was thrown into the light, the new understanding - it was beautiful in it's own way.

So here they both were selling Pawpsicles in the middle of the day, Nick had his job to do so Dawn elected to take his place. They were making decent money but right now their task wasn't to break the bank. They both kept an eye out for their mark - a gopher known as Germaine Stellano. On the surface he was the owner of a small side shop that did phone repairs and sold cases to clumsy mammals.

But there's no way that a simple rodent could afford the luxurious suits he wore out to town and interestingly enough through the magic simply asking the clerk in the MNC office their CEO Joe Camel had a afternoon appointment with Germaine this very day.

"He's here" was the whisper that the ewe needed to start casually scanning the mass until the little creature was spotted scurrying towards the MNC building which the two of them just so conveniently parked their cart next to.

Without hesitation Finn shot out towards the rodent to cut him off "Hey spiff, it's a hot day. What about a pawpiscle to cool yourself off?"

The gopher looked briefly flustered as he came to a quick halt, his finely pressed suit bunching up. The instinctive panic only lasted a moment before his flustered look was replaced with agitation as he readjusted his suit.

"Look I'm very late for a meeting and I don't want a pawpsicle" as he started to maneuver around the fox.

Except the skilled salesman started hounding the gopher and kept getting in front of him.

"I'm sure you don't want one because you're afraid it might drip on your suit, if you buy one I'll throw in a napkin free of charge".

They were in range of Dawn now as she pretended to just having noticed them and rushed over to the pair to butt in, holding her own Pawpiscle "Hey butt off Fox the gentlemammal said he didn't want your shitty treat".

The Gopher looked relieved that someone came to help him out of the salesman needy pitch "Yes thank you I just wa-"

"Because he wanted to buy my pawpsicles don't you?" she cut in.

Finn used that as his cue and begain to argue with Bellweather "Your pawpsicles? I wouldn't wipe my ass with that stuff, mines are made organically with fresh fruit. Where are your gotten? The gutter?"  
She rolled her eyes as she escalated her voice "Organic? Are you serious, you don't even know what organic means you stupid fox. Just because you found it on the ground doesn't mean it's organic!"

As their voices raised the other mammals rushing into the building started to stay clear of the bickering duo while Germaine looked increasingly more stressed and uncomfortable as he realized he was trapped and was getting increasingly late.

Finn suddenly faced the gopher "Look if you buy my treat I'll take 10% off".

She sputtered "10%? What kind of joke is that? 20% is something I'll do no problem".

He glared at her "Did I say 10? I meant 30%."

"40%" she glared back.

"50!"

Eventually their fight got into a nonsensical level and they started offering to pay the gopher to take the pawpsicles off their hands.

He was just too late, he couldn't stay here any more.

"LOOK!" he shout out halting their arguement "I'll take both of your pawpsicles just please let me go"

They book looked at him and then eachother, shrugging they each shoved a pawpsicle into his paw and moved aside. He looked briefly at them before he felt his watch buzz alerting that he was now officially late for his meeting. In a panic he ignored them and ran into the building pawpsicles in hand.

The pair waited a moment before backing away to their shared cart. They should have each gotten their own cart to bolster their image of a sales rivalry but it wasn't unknown to have competitors share the same cart for cost savings in Zootopia and she would have to register a permit to sell so why bother?

Finn slipped away and when he felt that he was away from prying eyes and listening ears he called up his best friend.

After the dial he heard Nicks voice "What's the story?"

Finn couldn't keep the smug look off his face "Plan worked perfectly, we're in".

* * *

Germaine was having an awful day. First he oversleeps and has to start rushing to his meeting and now he was held up by two stupid pawpsicle vendors and was late to the meeting with his bosses boss and now he's about to run into the office of the most powerful mammals in Zootopia holding two pawpsicles.

"Oh god he's going to think I'm some sort of kit or something" he quietly muttered to himself as he rushed out of the elevator and to the clerk on the executive floor of the towering MNC building.

The giraffe receptionist looks up from her productive texting to look at the source of noise. When she didn't immediately see any mammals she then used her long neck to peer over the table to spy a well dressed gopher carrying two melting pawpsicles.

"Can I help you?" she asked simply. Wondering if she was about to refuse a magazine subscription from this guy.

"Uhh... Yes I'm scheduled for an appointment with Joe Camel" he sputtered out.

She pulled out a log that lists all scheduled appointments and looks at the name penciled in for the noon slot. "Name?"

"Oh it's Germaine Stellano, that is G-E-R-M-"

She rudely cut him off "Ok yeah I see you, looks like you're running late to whatever meeting it is. Anyway he's in his office go on in".

He tried not to sweat when she said that and instead thanked her and went to the slightly ajar door. Squeezing through the thick oak doors he walked into a luxurious office. To a large mammal it must have been large but to a small mammal such as himself it was enormous. The floor was covered in an expensive looking ethnic rug, luxurious office chairs sat in front of a giant oak table. Windows lined the other wall while Joe camel sat turned around his desk facing out, the view must have covered the entire city.

His deep rich voice rang out "Take a seat Germaine".

Knocked back into reality he started to encroach onto one of the office chairs and impressively managed to get onto the chair without smearing his suit further with the melting pawpsicles. He's really going to have to get them dry cleaned.

The camel turned slightly to look at him with one of his eyes "And do pray tell why you are dripping all over my office?"  
He was definitely sweating now "Umm well I got a pawpsicle for you. I didn't know what flavor you liked so I got two!"

He shrank a bit as the camel stayed silent and after what felt like an eternity his voice asked "Do you have cherry?"  
He actually didn't know but he was already in a bad enough situation so what's the worst he could get himself into now? "Yes sir here you go" and handed the one in his right paw to the Camel who took the treat and gingerly lapped up the melting treat.

"Mmm it's good, thanks Stellano." he replied simply.

"Oh uh no problem sir" the gopher beamed, guess things worked out.

The camel kept eating and Germaine took that as his cue to eat his treat. To be honest it wasn't bad at all and he might actually buy some more when he gets out of the meeting. When they completed the treats the camel threw his stick into the rubbish while the gopher held onto his and pretended like he always meant to keep it rather than the fact he was afraid to move from his seat and dump it in THE Joe Camels trash can.

"So let's get down to business" as the camel swung around and rested his elbows on his desk, cradling his head with his paws. It was then the Gopher realized the brilliance of having the windows be directly behind him is, not only is the sunlight casting an otherworldly halo around him but it also made it more difficult for him to look at the camel without blinking away the light.

Joe didn't wait for a response "So I'm sure you were told briefly about what you're here for".

The gopher thought for a moment and replied "Yes sir, there was someone troubling you and you had to have them taken care of"

The Camel paused for a moment "Well that's not really what I need, at least not now, but I guess it's true enough."

He pulled open a drawer in his desk and pulled a small picture out and pushed it over the desk to the Gopher.

"This is your target. I want him to be under surveillance. I need to know everything about him, what he does in his free time, what his biggest fears are everything."

The gopher looked at the finely dressed individual in the photo "If you don't mind me asking, why him?"  
The camel sighed "Because he was a thorn in my side for far too long. At first I was just waiting for him to simply die off but looks like he's more stubborn then anything and refuses to. He's getting too close to things he shouldn't know."

The gopher then asked "So why not just kill him? You know, just make it look like a suicide or something?"

The camel shook his head "Not necessary, he's still safely far away from anything real right now and I don't need those kinds of question. Especially since on the Mammal News Channel he'd be plastered all over every day for weeks if he ended up dead. Right now I just need some information to have some.. leverage and make him see the error of his ways and simply back off."

The gopher nodded "Alright I'll get on it, what's his name?"

"Bogo" the camel replied as he turned back around.


	15. Survival Instincts

He messed up.

His head shifted to the left as a massive paw, one as large as his entire body, barely missed colliding with his body.

The displacement of the mass creates a low pressure vacuum and his body occupying a relatively high pressure area was subsequently at whim of the forces of the universe for this.

A less experienced fighter would find their balance shifted as the high pressure went to occupy the low pressure and a less experienced fighter would then get mauled.

This wasn't Nicks first rodeo and so instead of fighting the pull he fell into it. Using the developed inertia and his enhanced strength he punched directly into the humerus of the elephant.

Now there was a tendency to think that smaller mammals couldn't possibly beat a much larger one and sure being realistic in terms of raw strength it was unlikely Nick could ever hope to beat an elephant enhanced strength or not. It was Judy who had taught him the key to taking down any foe isn't raw strength but the combination of pressure and applying that pressure to the correct spot.

So sure he was small but he hit hard and more importantly all that strength was concentrated into the tiny cross-section of his fist and he knew exactly where to hit.

The sickening snap of bone followed by the trumpeting of the elephant as the pain forced him back alerted to the success of his counter attack.

The elephant backed up desperately clutching his arm. The broken bone sticking out through his thick skin and the blood starting to darken the shirt only incensed the fox to continue the attack. One of the biggest mistakes a fighter makes is to take pity on their enemy, this elephant would not stop if he was down so he is not going to give him the time to recover.

His claws now extended the fox swiftly closed the distance between the two and began to climb up the body of the elephant, digging his claws into the body of the elephant as he climbed. Leaving deep bloody behind torn pants and shirt. The creatures skin was so thick that Nick knew he wouldn't risk impaling an organ, this elephant may want to kill him but he right now had no particular reason to return the favor.

Reaching the face he smashed down on the right tusk causing another scream of pain as it was nearly torn straight from the mammals jaw.

The elephant began shaking his body violently in an attempt to throw him off and instead Nick took it as an opportunity to jump off the massive mammal but what he didn't count on was the incoming foot he was now on a collision course with.

Intended or not the vicious kick had Nick flying across the dark room, his body landing on the other side with a sickening thud.

He really messed up.

His body hurt and he'd be surprised if there was an unbroken bone left in his body from taking a direct hit from such a large creature. It was a such a stupid amateur mistake to get hit at all and now he was going to pay for it. The strange thing is the shock from the hit was there.

But his vision was starting to darken.

The surge of adrenaline put his mind into hyper drive, it was amazing how much information you could take in when your brain was being overclocked - it was not an unfamiliar sensation but right now he had to focus on the current situation.

First he heard the shaking of the elephant stop and instead heard and felt the assailant coming towards him presumably to finish him off.

Second he noticed that miraculously his cat costume was still holding on stead fast even after the fighting, he's going to have to get some additional mammal costumes after this.

Third was his vision was getting darker but not as if he was blacking out. He knew the sensation well, Nick likened it as walking through a mall when the power cuts out suddenly. It was immediate and urgent and you had to stay put until the lights were turned on.

This... the corners of his vision had flickering shadows laced with red. A rolling shade was being cast over his sight both tinting the world and tuning his vision so less immediately important details faded away.

There was a rock in front of him and for some reason he was absolutely drawn to this rock. The detail on it was just so sharp, his incredibly enhanced vision saw every crack and bump, the mild change of shading that was on one side that most mammals wouldn't notice.

His other senses were improved as well and the sheer amount of information his brain was taking in would incapacitate any other mammals but this wasn't the first time it's happened and he was able to handle it. His nose could pick out the scent from the rock which let him know that shade he was looking at most likely came from some sort of exposure to petroleum, maybe some sort of spill this rock had touched in the past.

His ears heard everything, he could almost hear the rushing of the elephants blood through his veins, the cracking of his jaw as he trotted closer and with the acoustic properties of the room he was able to figure out approximately how far away the elephant was from him which wasn't far and getting smaller quickly.

Nick didn't know if he could even move his body but right now he could barely pick coherent thoughts from the boiling rage inside of him, his instincts demanding to slaughter and devour the elephant.

A growl escaped unbidden from his muzzle which paused the elephant momentarily, he could hear the small whimper from the elephants throat - he was scared and yet he approached, well trained if nothing else.

The elephant was directly above him and Nick could feel the shifting air as the foot, the size eclipsing his entire body poised over him hoping to stomp him into a mash of fur and blood and gore.

His entire life flashed before his eyes. His days as a young aspiring kit, his time as a disillusioned adult, his life with Judy and his work to save the city. It all shot through him in that moment before the foot came down.

* * *

Andre didn't know who the hell this cat was or why he was getting fucked up by a mammal a fraction of his size. His job was simple, just find some sort of cat that usually lurked around the city at night and take him out. It was only his luck he caught the guy matching the description and even more lucky he was heading to some building, wasn't that the MNC building? Ah what did it matter he had the code for the side door anyway.

He heads in and finds the cat rooting through files in the CEOs room and next thing he knows he's getting thrashed hard but he was able to get a good shot in and the cat was just sitting there on the floor, there wasn't any blood but he doubted that getting kicked by him didn't break something.

God everything hurts, his jaw is going to have to get wired shut for some time after this, he really wished he had a dental plan but that wasn't important right now. What was important was the cat was sitting there and still alive so he had to at least finish the job otherwise he wasn't going to get paid.

So he limps there, holding onto his destroyed arm and hears a growl come from the mammal. What the hell, when did cats growl?

There was way too many weird things going on here but it wasn't his job to question things, he was paid for his brawn and not his brain after all.

He reaches the cat and then quickly stomps down on him with all his force, the room shakes lightly from the force of the blow and the floor boards buckle under the impact. Whatever it's not his building.

But he doesn't feel anything under his foot which causes him some confusion, he didn't see the little freak move and he doubted he was able to move after getting kicked across the room. But lifting his foot revealed no grisly remains at all just shattered floor boards.

Startled he backs up and starts quickly sweeping the room but sees nothing but an empty room. You had two potted plants in the corner, some chairs and a decorative coffee table.

Wait a minute wasn't there only one plant?

Before he could process the thought something collided with his head and everything went dark.

* * *

Just enjoying some thanksgiving with the family, hope everyone else has been having a good time. Also what is the best desert and why is it ice cream?


	16. Truth in Shadows

Well... fuck. He didn't mean to but he may have ended up killing the big mammal.

The blood pooling around the loxodonta's head brought the familiar scent of iron and gore to his experienced nose. You could really learn a lot about a mammal from the scent of their blood, after all anything they did would slightly alter the metallic twang of the scarlet essence. For example the bitter scent, and the deeply stained teeth, confirmed that this mammal was a habitual abuser of caffeine drinks - namely coffee in this case.

The art of figuring out a mammal from their blood was a lost art, it used to be something that all canines shared but through history it seems as the bloodhounds decided to cut out all their competitors and jealously guard the secrets of the art to themselves.

It wasn't too hard sneaking through their compound though relatively speaking.

That wasn't important right now. What was important is now he had a big mammal just slowly rotting there and when the mammals showed up in the morning for the regular shifts and uncovered him it would cause too many questions too early for him and it would possibly spoil the entire investigation.

"uuhgh" moaned the elephant, shifting lightly.

Nick let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, maybe he could get the elephant to leave this building. In his current condition he had no hope of possibly removing the body, enhanced strength or not.

The body shifted until it was now sitting upright, gripping his head the elephant grumbled out something that he couldn't pick up.

"What?" questioned the fox as he kept a grip on the stone in case a shift in the atmosphere occurred a second time.

"Where... Where am I?" repeated the elephant "The last thing I remember was getting out of Starfox and how did I get in this room?"

Hmm he didn't really know when he made his last coffee trip but if he had no idea when he even entered the building then maybe his strike had struck lucky. A concerned look fell on his face immediately as he went to the side of the downed mammal.

"Man take it easy I was worried about you."

"You-you were? What happened" puzzled out the elephant.

"Yeah man we were just running through the bosses building remember, making sure that nothing is missing? Next thing I know the building shook and I run in to see you got yourself clocked out on the floor. Did you slip on something, man that looks like a nasty cut you got."

It was a careful balance of course. This was an elephant that lived his entire life through confrontation. Scrapes and scars covered his body and if he laid it on too thick then his natural instincts would start to reject the reality he was trying to weave.

Nick always believed that the most powerful tool any mammal had wasn't the body but it was the mind. Being able to control and influence reality was the single most powerful ability any mammal could have. It made what mammals like Joe Camel doing even more insidious, his abuse of his position as the head of the MNC to spread false truths was akin to a corrupt god casting down mammals just because it struck his fancy.

Nick always did consider himself Prometheus, however.

"I just can't believe you got so fucked up just by walking, how did you manage to survive this long on your own you dumbass?"

That seemed to bring the elephant to his senses.

"Hey don't take that tone with me otherwise the boss might see a fox shaped smudge on the ground next time he comes in" growled out the elephant.

Standing up on shaky legs Nick stood back and kept a grip on the rock. "Well it looks like nothing was out of place on my end, did you see anything missing on yours?"

It was nonchalant in how he said it but his breathing grew very slow in anticipation for the response the elephant might give.

The elephant paused while standing, his face screwed into deep concentration. His forehead pressed together as whatever blood wasn't pouring out of his head went towards his brain to recall the details of his search. There, it was brief but he would never miss the shifting of his eyes as confusion nor did he miss the way the elephant opened his mouth slightly wider to speak the following words.

"No, nothing was missing on my end"  
It was bullshit, the elephant couldn't remember. Must have been embarrassing to forget something, when your species was famous for never forgetting.

"Alright well in that case just clean up the blood and split, I've been here long enough and I'm getting out of here"

The elephant looked down and noticed all the blood.

Giving a mild snort "Eh good for nothing fox, whatever get out of here and I'll clean up"

Nodding Nick turned and darted out, leaving no room for any different conversations to come up.

So looks like he managed to get out of that fairly unscathed but his arm will need a looking over and although he really wanted to tail that elephant to see where exactly he ends up going tonight it was far too dangerous to keep pushing his luck so he was making a tactical retreat for now.

Before he knew it he was at Bellweathers den, he somehow grew so accustomed to the cold that would freeze other mammals at this point.

Nick must have lost some blood at some point on the way there because he was standing and knocking on her door and he didn't even remember the transit up to her.

The door opened to reveal a disheveled and frustrated looking Bellweather. The anger on her face melted away at a look of his destroyed form.

"Nick-" he heard her shout out before he blacked out.

* * *

Of course by now he knew instantly that he was dreaming now. It wasn't the fact that Judy was with him and it even wasn't the fact that they were surrounded by the kits they never ended up having was what tipped it off to him. He was just... lucid. He knew that this was all just a dream and he knew that if he really tried he could force himself out of it.

But what scared him is he didn't want to.

If he really thought about it what was there really left for him out there in the real world? In here he had his Judy and his kits. Out there it was broken and in here it was perfect.

The snuggling to his side brought a smile to his face.

But this wasn't real.

And it hurt so much, to see his mate and to see his kits was a horror that he wouldn't wish to inflict on even his worst enemies and yet here he was putting himself through it each time he closed his eyes. It was why he always tried so hard to stay awake.

"Daddy daddy!" he heard one of his kits call out but the voice was laced with an oily slickness that he felt like he heard before, a dream long forgotten.

His vision started to blur and quickly the snuggling bunny faded away into black and the world started to blink out of existence. Swinging his vision to the location of the call he faced the same dark essence, well dressed figure sporting a void in lieu of a face, stood there again.

"Hello again Nick" spoke the figure, apparition, spirit?

He couldn't stop himself from sighing "What do you want this time, didn't you see myself enjoying my time off?"

The spirit shook his head "No I couldn't quite say I did, it looked like you were trying to not have a breakdown there"

"So what are you doing here and exactly who are you, at this point I don't think you're just some figment of my subconscious"

"And what makes you think that?"

He couldn't see but he swore that the thing started smirking.

What actually made him think that anyway?

"Because the world doesn't fade to black for anything else but you"

Oh yeah that.

The spirit looked stumped by that.

"Well hmm damn it looks like you found the missing link"

The fox then followed up with "And yet I still don't know who you are, so will you so graciously fill me in on that part?"

The figure shook his head "No but don't worry, I'm a fri-

"No you listen here" the fox suddenly cut off "I am absolutely sick and fucking tired of dealing with bullshit. I am tired of hunting down puzzles and I am not going to play your stupid games. Either tell me who you are or get out of my head"

The outburst left the spirit stunned and he didn't respond for a while. The pause extended and the silence started to make Nick anxious, suddenly realizing the implication of pissing off a spirit that somehow had the ability to invade his dreams.  
Before his anxiety built to a breaking point and he were to accidently - apologize - the figure responded.

"I'm... sorry Nick I can't tell you who I am now and I'm sorry to put the unwanted stress on you. I promise I'll let you know in due time but now is not the time."

He walked a little closer to Nick but his figure remained shrouded.

"What I can do however is give you some... information"

Not to say he wasn't a little bit curious was a lie.

"Information how?"

The spirit continued "So lets think about what we know so far and I promise it'll help with the final result"

"So first we knew that Joe Camel was involved with sort of media cover up. You suspected this when Bellweather revealed her involvement in a formula that should have at least appeared in some scientific article let alone on TV and yet there was almost no mention of it anywhere. You didn't really know what sort of connection he had with the underground until you found out he was having secret meetings that weren't even logged in his daily itinerary as you realized from a glance of his schedule earlier."

"Alright so I know all of this, what's new?

The spirit looked irritated...somehow.

"Like I was saying when you fought the elephant and knocked him into amnesia you managed to pick up that Joe Camel is a boss and not some sort of minor player."

"Now it's obvious why someone like Joe Camel would be involved in a criminal enterprise, it's more money after all - well an untaxed revenue source and it allows him to bully figures without getting his own hands messy. You always did wonder why fresh news agencies seem to vanish all the time in Zootopia. It's also not a surprise why Joe would try to curate news sources to avoid talking about ADONIS, if someone such as the great apes told him not to then he would happily do so for a fee"

The figure turned around and yet the form seemed equally as formless.

"What if I told you something that you hadn't considered? Something that would shake up your entire investigation?"

Almost timidly Nick responded "What?"

"You know how you've been trying to tie the history of the Great Apes right? Where did they come from, where are they operating from and what are their ultimate goals? The ever enigmatic group of simians that seem to hold an absolute stranglehold over the cites underground?"

"Yeah?"

"What if I told you that Judys death wasn't a freak accident but an execution?"

Stunned now "W-what?"

"And what if I told you that Joe Camel and a few other of the cities elites planned her death with the Great Apes?"

The shock melted into rage in the fox, he was barely hanging on to control and seethed "And why would they do that?"

The figure stalled for a moment but just for a moment.

"To start a war."


	17. An occurrence in the Gangs of Zootopia

Man what a mess he got himself into.

"Looks like you're not going to scurry yourself out of this one, rat" as the dog leveled his pistol straight at his forehead.

He should have listened to his brother and mother, they tried so hard to keep him out of gangs and tried to protect him.

"You can't waste your life in those slums" his mother would tearfully exclaim whenever he would come back home with a new tattoo, then she would soundly whoop him for talking back to her.

His brother was his idol and he lived his entire life hoping to be even half the wolf that he was. He was so strong and confident that when he then joined the gangs in the city he wanted to do the same.

So it was hard to break his dreams when one day his brother came back a broken wolf and implored him to never make the same mistakes he did.

But of course he was stubborn and now here he was.

The adrenaline that was coursing through him made him hear the scraping of the hammer as it was pulled, the trigger moving into the position to release the firing pin.

Mammals say that when you're about to die your entire life will flash before your eyes but for him he only thought about all the things he was never going to get a chance to enjoy. He was never again going to enjoy a meal, kiss his first girl or see his mother or brother again all because of what he did or rather what he refused to do. Now he was caught and about to be killed just because some mammal who he never knew about or saw told him to come and mess with another gangs supplies. A gang full of mammals he never knew, never meant and never had any problems with.

Tears started falling from his eyes as the trigger was gripped harder, every second seeming like an eternity. He didn't know what death would be like but it seemed like his time.

The quiet click of the gun was the only thing louder than his beating heart.

He waited a moment and then another and when it seemed like the bullet was not coming he looked up at the expression of realization dawning on the mutts face.

Acting immediately the wolf reared back and snapped his jaw on the dogs arm holding the gun causing him to shout in pain and drop the weapon, taking this as an opportunity the wolf ran out of the room immediately.

He was stuck in some building in unfamiliar territory and had no idea where to go, all he did know was to get the hell out of dodge.

'There were more goons around here. I'm sure they'll try to stop me' he thought just moments before a bullet landed only inches to his right. Risking to look back he saw a pack of dogs chasing after him.

Most bullets missed but one would clip his fur and one particularly scary bullet touched his skin but all he was focused on was just to keep on running. Thankfully he was about to outrun those mutts and managed to finally escape them.

'Hmm that seemed too easy, now I'm sure that I'm about to run back into them' and once again when he turned the corner he collided back into the same group that was chasing him.

Taking advantage of their shock he sprinted around the corner away from them, avoiding their bullets and screamed obscenities while he did so.

After what felt like forever he slowed down and then stopped. His legs burned, his lungs felt like he was on fire and he was panting so hard he felt like his throat was about to fall out of his mouth. But he ran so far that he must have finally lost him. Looking around he recognized that he was in Savannah Square - it looked familiar to him but no other mammals were around and the place seemed abandoned even though it was lined with houses and businesses.

'Wait a minute, Dennis Deli, I remember that place' he used to go there as a young pup and it was only a twenty minute walk from his house. With a surge of vigor he realized he was given the chance by who knows, god, providence, who cares he had the chance to be the wolf he always should have been and get out of this life.

As he followed the path home tears collected around his eyes once again, his brother would smack him for being such a baby but he would happily accept his consequences from them. The glimmering of the full moon illuminated his path back to home. The path seemed, however, overrun with vegetation as if no mammals walked on it in years - maybe decades.

He didn't think much of it and eventually saw his house. His mother and brother were sitting on the front porch talking to each other and both turned to see him. He couldn't contain his excitement as started running towards them as fast as he can, ignoring the pain in his legs as he pumped his entire being into his sprint.

He could see their smiling faces, the muzzles growing wide with joy and relief at seeing them as they opened their arms up to him.

Right as he was about to reach them a horrible crack went through his head, his ears only held a strong ringing and his sense of balance was distorted, his family distorted into blurs and then everything faded to darkness.

The wolf was dead. A bullet sized hole going through his head, his body lying slumped on the ground as blood pooled around it in a dirty room in some slum.

* * *

Recently readan occurrence at Owl Creek bridge and it really blew me away. Honestly I wish I could write even half as well as the original author but maybe one day I can.

Sorry about the update schedule, it's been fairly hard to keep up my old schedule since I have to wake up at 5am most days and end up back at home at 6pm or later some days. I'll finish the story because I hate it when an author never finishes or does some stupid "Oh I just gave up" excuse but it will take some time.


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